How many of you say to yourself, “I need to lose weight.” “I need more money.” “I need to meet my soulmate.”

Guilty as charged. I do it, too. That is, until I heard Joe’s simple distinction on the negative power of the word need.

This Is Not Magic, Despite My Subtitle

I’m going to go against the metaphysical grain here, as well as the belief structures of many of my friends, but I do not believe in magic. I do, however, believe in things that appear magical. There is a huge difference.

I believe in cause and effect. I also believe there is chaos in the universe — which may just mean “stuff we cannot detect patterns in as of yet.” Fine. It still appears chaotic.

That being said, cause and effect can be magical in appearance.

None of us truly understand how (put the word here that you personally believe in: God, the universe, infinite energy, the zero-point field, or what-have-you) works. Many of us do not even believe in something else out there “to” work.

My beliefs on the matter are not important. What is important is that all of the belief structures above, even non-belief, can take advantage of the power of cause and effect and the thrill of the unknown.

The conservative positive thinkers in the world will still acknowledge that we tend to succeed at the things we focus on. The metaphysical thinkers are the motivational philosophers of the world who attempt to tell us why this happens. I do not blame them. Science is rarely satisfied with, “Because it happens.” We all want to know the reasons why.

Whether or not you buy into the things taught in The Secret — for the record, I do to an extent — you cannot escape the fact that we tend to attract into our lives the things that we focus on the most. And, in my opinion, the REAL secret is this: we tend to attract what we feel the most, not the things we think about the most.

Sure, we can say that we simply take action on these things more often and with more diligence. So what? It still works. Focus on what you want to feel and you have a far better chance attracting those feelings — events and possessions that create those feelings — into your life.

This isn’t as much metaphysical magic as it is common freakin’ sense if you ask me.

The Key Distinction

Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided to put my own spin on Joe’s distinction: that focusing on what we need will not give us what we want, but more stuff to need.

I asked myself, “What should I focus on? Is there a word to describe it?”

Desire.

Even the word itself is provocative. It is strong. It is enticing. It percolates the imagination.

Simply changing the phrase, “I want more money,” into “I desire abundance” creates a massive difference in your focus and your state. Your state controls so much of your life.

Personally, I would not mind attracting more things to desire into my life. That sounds like fun. More things to “need” does not.

Give these simple power statements a shot:

“I desire the body of my dreams.”

“I desire true abundance.”

“I desire fulfilling and exciting relationships.”

Simple, isn’t it?

Now, all you have to do is what my friend John Harricharan says to do: feel as you would feel if you had the very thing you desire.

Obviously you cannot feel this 24/7, but you can certainly feel it for a few minutes several times a day.

The Secret, and hundreds of other books, some hundreds of years old, teach the same principle: we attract more of what we feel. If we feel angry, we’ll attract more anger and events to become angry at into our lives. If we feel love, we attract more love and loving events. And so-on.

Is this true? Personally, I believe it is — at least the vast majority of the time. I leave room for elements of chaos, but I’ll place my bets with attracting what I feel every day of the week and twice on Sunday…assuming they are taking bets on Sunday. : )

The word “desire” helps me generate the feelings of having what I do not currently possess. “Need” does not. “Need” screams “lack” at the top of its lungs.

We need very little in life. Food, shelter, clothing, oxygen…the basics. We desire far more than we will ever need. This makes “desire” far more powerful to reckon with.

It is not wrong to desire more. Had it not been for the desire for more, you would not be reading these words on your computer, but on a hand-written letter delivered by a guy on a horse. Or perhaps via smoke signals.

The Power of Words

As you have probably gathered, I’m a big believer in the power of words. Spoken words, unspoken words, and words that float about in our subconscious can make and shape our environment and our destiny.

Last night I caught the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. I like Bill because he’s fearless in his beliefs and he lets both sides of the political fence slug it out on his panel. It’s fun to watch.

One of his guests was Frank Luntz, political wordsmith and author of Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear.

According to Wikipedia.com:

Luntz produces an extensive yearly briefing book to be disseminated among members of the Republican Party to popularize the phrases Republicans should use to frame all debates, all discussions. These phrases can then be used by Republicans in their talking points.

Maher appears to me as a cross between a Libertarian and a Democrat. He’s savvy enough to know where to look for an advantage, so he took the opportunity to ask Luntz “what the Democrats should say in order to win back the Presidency.”

(This is not a political diatribe — merely an emphasis on the power of words that the most conservative political party in America apparently agrees with.)

Just fyi: Luntz is the guy responsible for the following wordsmithing distinctions:

The Estate Tax is now The Death Tax
Global Warming is now Climate Change
Expansion of logging in environmentally-challenged places is now referred to as Healthy Forests Initiative

See? Politics and wordsmithing can be fun…and profitable. Luntz makes a mint creating spins with words that sell voters. Right or wrong is not the point. Political party loyalty is not the point.

The point is that words are the most powerful tools we can use to change our minds, our lives and our destiny. Washington is just smart enough to implement this when it comes to elections and sensitive issues.

Shouldn’t you take advantage of the power of words, too? A great word to start with is desire.

Desire can be wonderful. Desire for the greatest destiny you can offer the universe. Desire for love, for peace, for abundance, for health, and for the means to share each with the rest of the world.

Do that, and the word need may vanish from your vocabulary.

P.S. If one of your desires is to have greater fitness and health at any age, I highly recommend my book Fit Over 40. Note that I also cover many other mental empowerment strategies in Fit Over 40 — the very ones I used to change my own life and body from that of an obese and sickly man to a lean, vibrant and healthy 43-year-old. There are 52 other examples, ages 40-80, who have done the same.

Go see —

http://www.fitover40.com

[jB]