Science and 'The Secret'

Rob Archer just wrote a post on 'The Secret'.  He described it as 'Bollocks' and part of me went 'Yey!' because there is so much in 'The Secret' that is damaging (more on that in another post!) , but it got me thinking. So many people love 'The Secret' and persist with it, are there aspects of it that are useful? Is it possible to tease out the positive parts of the approach without the detrimental 'I have to send positive energy out to the universe by controlling my thoughts and feelings' part (which, is not only impossible but actually counter-productive). 
  
So 'Is there any science to support any of the idea's in 'The Secret'?'

'The Secret' seems to be based on a core belief that picturing what you want and having a positive expectation that it will happen, will actually make what you want to happen, really happen.  Now I can't find any science to support that core hypothesis and there are some huge flaws in the idea. However, this idea does relate to a couple of other important idea's that are worth exploring.

1. That it is possible to control how lucky you are
2. That believing you will succeed increases your chance of succeeding.

So let's look at those idea's.

1. Seeing yourself as 'lucky'. 

 Richard Wisemann has found that people who see themselves as lucky, live 'amazingly charmed lives, full of good fortune.' He found that lucky people actually generate their own good fortune via four principles.

'They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.'

Wiseman found that teaching people these strategies increases their 'luck'.  The beauty of these strategies is that they are much easier to follow than trying to think happy thoughts all the time (which, as I have mentioned, is not only impossible but actually counter-productive!).

 2. Believing that you will be successful


The belief that you will be able to do what is necessary, so that you will achieve your goals is called Self- Efficacy. A lot of research has been done on how self-efficacy interacts with success.  The ideal level of self-efficacy (i.e.confidence that we will succeed) is to have slightly more confidence in ourselves than our actual ability.  This optimism encourages us to stretch ourselves, tackle challenges and persist in the face of difficulty. Which, of course, means we learn new skills, our life expands and we are more likely to be successful.  


However, if our self-efficacy outstrips our ability by too much, we can end up biting off more than we can chew and  fail.  This is a risk of 'The Secret'.  Followers of 'The Secret' seem to believe that thinking the right thoughts will help them to succeed. They don't seem to judge their likelihood of success based on past experiences of success or failure. This means that occasionally they will succeed at something surprising but they also risk repeated and sometimes disastrous failure.  Further, because they attribute success or failure to how well they managed to control their thoughts and feelings (which, I may have mentioned, is not only impossible but actually counter-productive!) they can fail to learn from their mistakes.


So if I was to write a best selling book on the secrets to a successful life (based on research on luck, self-efficacy and a little bit of ACT (of course!)) this is what it would say:

My Cat

• Have a clear picture of what 'success' looks like to you - be aware that we are constantly being told that success looks a certain way (usually involving money and status). Create your own picture. Mine involves a garden; some chickens; a cat, and the people I love.
• Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine  - if your usual approach isn't getting you the outcomes you want, try doing one thing different
• Set yourself written goals that stretch you a little - record your successes and remind yourself of those successes when you have to do something similar but more challenging
• Measure your success in two ways
• Did you achieve the outcome you wanted?
• Did you live your values?  Were you the person you want to be in the world?
• Repeatedly connect to the present moment through your five senses - so you get accurate information about what is happening and don't miss opportunities
• Use your intuition as a source of information - don't treat it as truth. But intuition can sometimes signal to us that we need to notice some aspect of a situation we haven't paid sufficient attention to
• When you want to do something challenging, prepare well and make a plan
• When your mind starts freaking you out, telling you how you will fail - accept that this is what minds do. Don't feel you have to either control or buy the thoughts. Check in with what is really happening in the world rather than what your mind is telling you is happening.  If what you want to do is important to you, 'Feel the fear and do it anyway!'