I'm not a fan of psychological hand-holding, which is to say the whole "pseudo self-help" sector, be it business, personal life, etc. In my mind, people who write these books, record these videos or audio tapes or show up on Oprah end up doing absolutely nothing other then telling people what they could figure out themselves if they bothered with a little bit of introspection and self-honesty. The only people who really benefit from this are the ones raking in the cash when their product becomes the "it" device of the year.
The current (although possibly wanning) "it" product is The Secret, now a full fledged industry, the same way that 7 Habits and Colored Parachutes were in the past. I'm not intimately familiar with said Secret, but have had the Cliff Notes version given to me. From what I gather, this Secret (how secret can it be, now that the author is publicly rolling in a shitload of cash?) relies on visualization as a means to motivation or, if you think it, you can do it. Believe in yourself. The power of positive thinking.
Yeah, we've heard all this bullshit before under different titles. What goes around, comes around.
Here's the kicker: The Secret is anything but. In fact, it's been around far longer then you or I. It's been around longer then the Roman Empire, really. Truth be told, it's practiced more often then even the parasitic opportunist who wrote The Secret probably realizes (or, if he or she is really a scheister, then he or she knows it, and has made millions telling a lot of people what they already know. God Bless America!)
Back in the early days of humanity (yes, that far), people had a love/hate relationship with their world. With limited resources, people couldn't explain their world in definite terms, so they fell back on the only explanation they could: superstition.
For these people, the weather, crops, floods, births, deaths, animals and everything else was controlled by unseen and intelligent forces who had their own agendas which may or may not jive with those of humanity. In an attempt to sway the will of these supernatural forces, humanity invented the ritual, a consistent and crafted event and way of thinking that supposedly would petition the supernatural forces to view humanity in a more favorable light, and grant them the things they were seeking.
Eventually, this kind of thing evolved as people gained a handle on making things happen for themselves (irrigation, animal husbandry, etc). The supernatural forces took on a less realistic role, and more of a totemic role, acting as a focus for the desires of humanity. These focus points, or fetishes, served as a touchstone that people could use to solidify their desires -- for love, children, health, wealth and other personal requests.
Unfortunately, this got a bad rap. From our standpoint in today's "enlightened" society, this was called paganism. One particular form of paganism that people are probably more familiar with is witchcraft. Although I do not recall whether it was presented as such, if it was something I figured out, I realized that the notion of witchcraft -- as practiced in the real world, and not some Dungeons & Dragons idea of "magic" -- was less about petitioning the "powers that be", and was all about convincing yourself that the spells one invoked were going to get you the results you wanted. The spell itself was the totem that focused your self-confidence: if you believed in the power of the spell, then you would believe that it would work. If you believed that it would work, you could live your life secure in the knowledge that your dream would come true because of the action you had taken to help yourself.
Supposedly, this is the essence of The Secret. You pick a goal, a certain desired outcome, and you focus on it. You visualize yourself achieving it. If you believe in the method -- this Secret -- then you believe that you will achieve it. Secure in this knowledge that The Secret is working for you, you walk taller, speak better, become a more self-confident "go-getter"...and consequently, people see you as someone who knows what they want, knows how to get it, and knows what to do with it once they achieve their goal. You appear to be a leader, someone people can have confidence in, someone that others want to follow, support and bend over backwards for. You have no fear, because you know The Secret and are making it work for you.
In the end, nothing new. Nothing revolutionary. In fact, in modern times, this system has another name: Prayer.
Prayer is a major cornerstone in almost all major human religions. It's not so divorced from witchcraft or pagan rites as self-important religious figures would like their followers to believe, such to the point that practically all modern religions owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who worshiped the moon, or made offerings to unseen forces for good crops, healthy children and favorable outcomes. Don't people today pray for the same things, only with different dogma?
Prayer boils down to the same thing: the words carry a specific belief in whom you are praying to. You are entreating the target of your prayer to look favorably upon you in the hopes that they'll agree with you, or take pity on your situation, and will grant you some supernatural dispensation that will make your wish come true. If you truly believe that your prayers will result in the desired outcome, then you convince yourself at that point and time that you will be granted what you have asked for. Your life has now changed, and you live each day believing that your prayer will be granted, which changes your mannerisms, your outlook and, as a result, how people perceive you. You have taken what is possibly a depressing situation -- serious illness, potential destitution, etc -- and have given yourself hope, courtesy of your own action through prayer.
What's the bottom line? Is The Secret a scam? No, not really. Is it really a secret? Only to those who believe that it's some kind of voodoo (which is another good example of results through belief). It's just another way to bring the method of positive thinking into people's homes, especially for those who aren't interested in witchcraft, or aren't religious enough for prayer. Living life as if you will most certainly attain your goals is a worth-while way to live, but no one dogma or self-help industry is bringing anything new to the table...only repackaging it and putting a new ad campaign behind it. The funny thing is that there's nothing secret about getting to know oneself, or in having confidence, but someone sure is getting rich off of making people believe that there is.