Joe Vitale on The Secret to Life - Be Happy With What You Have Right Now

A number of commentators featured in the The Secret movie and book are doing free interviews once per week at MastersOfTheSecret.com. It’s free to sign up and to listen.

In the first interview, Joe Vitale discusses what he considers his secret to life. If you’ve never heard of Joe Vitale, he’s well known in internet marketing circles as a great copywriter. (His website is MrFire.com.) He’s known for having written a number of books including The Attractor Factor, Zero Limits, Life’s Missing Instruction Manual, Hypnotic Writing, Buying Trances, and How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days.

Yes, he’s a busy bee cranking out great marketing - and more recently, metaphysical - books at a rate of at least 2-3 per year. I’ve read most of them because, from a marketing perspective, Joe knows what he’s doing. He’s a great copywriter that knows how to write conversationally, pull people into the story, and lead them through his main points so they walk away feeling like they’ve gotten great benefit. Yes, that means he’s a fantastic salesman as well, and if you aren’t careful, your first purchase will soon lead to buying more of his stuff. Of course, that’s what he wants - but at least he’s upfront about telling you what he’s doing.

Anyway, one of the things I like about Joe’s responses (and his Attractor Factor philosophy) is his focus on being happy now. That all the stuff you wish for won’t make you happy. That outside influences won’t make you happy. Only you can choose to be happy right now.

It’s a matter of realizing you’re totally fine right now where you are at but you are probably living like a king or a queen compared to people in 3rd world countries or people in our past history. You are probably living this lifestyle that other people if they saw would be totally envious of, and we don’t pause and appreciate it because we want more, more, more, and more.

It’s so easy to fall into that trap of always wanting the next latest-and-greatest thing. If only we had more money, a better relationship, better health, a new home, we’d be happy. But then, we get what we want and we still aren’t happy. Or our happiness is fleeting and soon we’re fixated on yet another thing we want.

Now, you might be saying, sure, that sounds great, but you don’t understand my situation. Perhaps you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer or your ex left or you’ve just filed for bankruptcy. How can you be happy now? Joe responds -

whatever is going on right now, if it looks absolutely horrible in your life, one year from now or certainly five years from now, or certainly 10 years from now, you will look back at this moment in time and you will find a good way of looking at it.

Every time we experience pain, it’s an opportunity for us to grow. Life isn’t always a bed of roses. You can’t eliminate all bad things and only have good things. But you do have control over your thoughts, feelings and actions - and it’s up to you to learn what you need to learn and move on with your life. The situation can only make you stronger.

Other advice from Joe:

• See opportunities in everything. He says that from a marketing perspective, every time he hears a complaint, he thinks of it as an opportunity to product a product that will help that person.
• Think optimistically. If you know that in hindsight, you’ll see your biggest obstacles were the ones that shaped who you are today, why not think like that right now? If you’re going through challenging times, how can you use that to help others? How can you turn your obstacles into opportunities right now?
• To change your outcome, you must change yourself from the inside out. If you’re holding on to limiting beliefs, it’s up to you to do some personal development work and let go of them. You can change, but you must want to change - that’s your responsibility. You must take 100% responsibility for your life. No one can do it for you.
• One way to change your thinking is to start asking better questions. When you ask negative questions like “what’s wrong with me” or “what if things go bad” or “what if things don’t turn around next week” or “why can’t I”, you condition your brain to respond in a pessimistic way. Instead, turn the questions around and ask things like “what are some ways to raise money to pay my bills” or “what are some things I can do right now to change the situation.” Your brain will then be focused on answering these questions, and you’ll be much more likely to solve your problem. Instead of asking “why can’t I,” ask “how can I.”
• Focus is key. If you’re looking to manifest something into your life, you must keep your attention and focus on that object. If you lose focus - and stop visualizing or focusing on your goals - you’ll slow down the process tremendously.
• Don’t be attached to the outcome, or in other words “You can have whatever you want in life as long as you don’t need it.” The more desperate you are for something, the less likely you are to get it. You must let go of your notion that it’s a “life or death” situation and you’ll die if you don’t get it. You won’t. You’ll make it to the end of the month. You’ll find a way.

Joe also offers some advice on marketing. I work with a lot of professional services clients who are uncomfortable with the concepts of marketing and selling. They feel it’s manipulative or unprofessional. Joe says

this is not about manipulation or persuasion or brow beating people or the old used car salesmen mentality or way of being. This is all about finding the target audience who most wants your product or service. That’s really what marketing is. It’s finding that target audience, that’s already got a mind set looking for your product or service, it’s just that match is where the sale takes place and marketing is just telling them both about it.

He then goes into a story about a woman who raved about the movie What the Bleep Do We Know. This woman recommended the movie to everyone that would listen to her. Now, most people wouldn’t classify this as “marketing” - but she was! She was spreading the word about why she liked this movie and why others should see it. That’s marketing.

If you strongly believe in the benefits of your products and services, and you know they can help people, it’s your job to communicate that message and passion to others who might benefit. That’s marketing. There’s nothing sleazy about it. Now, if you don’t believe in what you’re selling, that’s a different story, and perhaps you should look into finding something different to sell. If you’re not 100% sold on what you offer, how can you hope to show others the benefits?

I encourage you to check out the interview. Again, it’s free and at MastersOfTheSecret.com.