Is the secret so simple? Dr. Seuss thinks so.
The holidays are over and editors and agents are bracing themselves for the deluge of queries that follow the holidays. What strategies can help make 2010 the year you get published, or published again?
Many say The Secret, Rhonda Byrne’s motivational book, can change your world for the better. Byrne suggests that, by thinking positively and changing the way you see the world, the world will change for you. Publisher’s Weekly calls the book a “New Age self-help book on the law of attraction … that one’s positive thoughts are powerful magnets that attract wealth, health, happiness…and did we mention wealth?”
Can positive thoughts trigger the law of attraction and make us published authors without any toil on our part ? Hmm. Perhaps the “secret” is that positive thinking is so powerful that everything falls into place once we start changing the way we think.
The concept of changing our lives by changing our thinking has been around for centuries, in many cultures. Dr. Dwayne Dyer used the teachings of an ancient Chinese philosopher to hone in on thoughts in his July release, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life – Living the Wisdom of the Tao. Dyer shows us that better thoughts can lead to richer, fuller, more joyous lives.
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale was first published in 1952, and it stayed on the NYT best-selling list for 186 consecutive weeks. Similar books have followed. Even Dr. Seuss explored the topic in Oh, the Thinks You Can Think.
Eventually the self-help books made a connection between the Law of Attraction and Creating Affluence, as in Deepak Chopra’s 1998 release, Creating Affluence, and again in 2002 with his Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.
Can we really “think” ourselves published? “Think” ourselves rich? Are Chopra and Byrne talking about the same kind of “affluence?” Perhaps we are “thinking” the wrong way, and some thought adjustments can bring joy and affluence to our lives … and a publishing contract.
What we focus on becomes our reality. Over 50,000 thoughts ping through our minds every day. Think about this: we all have choices, and what we think is a choice. Do you really like that nagging inner voice, complaining about everything, being judgmental and bitter, criticizing your friends, your family, you? This, I think, is the spirit behind these “positive thinking” books.
We can change what we think, make it more positive, be more grateful and hopeful. That will create a new joy in us, a new excitement, a new energy to develop work habits and strategies that increase our odds for success. What a terrific way to start the new year!
What strategies work best for you? Please share with us. Meanwhile, I’m wishing you New Year Joy filled with promising, supportive thoughts.
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Grade A! "Well-drawn characters and the strong sense of time and place will have readers rushing to read Tabor's Trinket, the prequel to this book.
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