The Secret

I've been reading Rhonda Byrne's The Secret - the book that swept the globe, so to speak. I always thought it'd be a waste of time and a waste of Rs 600, but mum, who never has much time to read books, asked us to buy it for her. So it's been lying around at home for a couple of years, still unread. It's been started and abandoned several times - not because it's rubbish, but because (in mom's case) it needs to be read attentively and incorporated at every stage, and (in mine) a better book comes along whenever I start it.

So this time I decided to read it in conjunction with other books and at leisure, and I'm pretty determined to get through it. Thus far, my reaction has been swaying between cynicism and "oh yeah that makes so much SENSE!" I do realise that in order for it to "succeed", it needs to be read with faith or belief but that's not easy for me. It challenges a lot of the methods I use in my own life and yet some parts of it make enough sense for me to seriously consider adopting them. Let's see how I feel by the time I get to the end.

I'm currently reading a part that advises the reader to ask for what we want by writing it down, but in order to do that we need to be sure of what we want. That's never been easy for me either; I have an idea of, say, what I want in the (very) near future, but whenever people ask me where I see myself in 5-10 years, I'm quite stumped. All I can really say to that is that I'd like to be happy. I'd like to know that I've used my time well, that I've learned something and have even more to learn, and not be filled with regret. A noble goal, I like to think, because if you really try to reach it without a time frame in mind, you're attracting it every step of the way. Easier said than done though; I've always maintained it's harder to remain happy and optimistic as compared to sulking and moping especially when things don't go your way.

In the 9th grade, we had this teacher who, in her first class, asked each of us to stand up and tell her our name and our ambition in life. I can't remember what I said to that, but nearly everyone came up with "engineer" or "doctor". Except one girl, who said that she'd like to always be happy and make many friends. The teacher kept repeating "you don't understand, what is your AMBITION in life?" and the other students were laughing. But I think she understood very well.