This past year brought a wave of interest in the "Law of Attraction" (which is really more like a Hypothesis of Attraction), due in large part to a DVD movie and its companion book, both called The Secret. After applying the techniques described in The Secret, some people experience amazing results while other people get few or no results, and there is a very simple reason for that.

The most important factor — one that was ignored in the movie — is that if you don't align your actions with your intent, you will never achieve what you are trying to manifest. Simply thinking about your goals and focusing your thoughts and emotions on your intention isn't enough.

If your goal is to lose weight but you eat 5,000 calories worth of junk food every day and never exercise, you are not aligning your actions with your intent and therefore you won't lose weight, no matter how many hours you spend visualizing a slender, healthier version of your self.

If your goal is to get a terrific new job but you spend every day lounging on the sofa watching Law & Order reruns instead of filling out job applications and sending out resumes, you won't find a new job, even if you spend a full hour every day mentally projecting your intent out into the universe.

If your actions contradict your intent, guess which one will win out in the end?

Before you take any action, ask yourself, "Will this action bring me closer to achieving my goal?" If the answer is no, you will need to decide whether or not you truly want to take that action. If the answer is that not only will the action not bring you closer to your goal but instead will take you in the opposite direction, you will need to determine which is more important to you — achieving your goal or taking that particular action instead.

Practicing that technique throughout each and every day will also help you learn how to differentiate between behavior that stems from a desire for instant gratification versus behavior that grows out of focusing on your true purpose and intent.

Each morning, focus on your intent and decide on at least one action you will take today toward reaching your goal. It doesn't have to be something elaborate or dramatic. It may be as simple as placing a phone call, sending an email, or attending a class. Every step you take to align your actions with your intent will result in progress toward achieving your goal, while sitting in your living room just thinking about things you wish you had or things you would like to do won't get you very far.

The self-help gurus involved in The Secret quickly realized they had failed to address this important point. In subsequent appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live, nearly every guest from The Secret made a deliberate attempt to emphasize that the Law of Attraction requires action, not just intent. If you doubt this, watch the episodes of those talk shows and count how many times the guests say "If you sit around and visualize, they'll come take your furniture away!" That statement became their mantra, a way to address after-the-fact this extremely important aspect they had neglected to mention in the film.

We firmly believe in the old adage "You get what you focus on." Whether it has anything to do with your intent creating quantum vibrations that resonate throughout the universe, we have no idea. We're not quantum physicists. We think it has more to do with two other factors instead:

1. When you focus on something, you typically spend more time on actions related to whatever you're focusing on. You devote more attention to that area of your life.

2. When you focus on something, you direct your subconscious to be on the lookout for anything related to that goal. As a result, you tend to notice things that otherwise would have slipped under your radar. You suddenly begin to experience synchronicities, events and opportunities that bring you closer to your goal, but is this happening because your intent is "vibrating outward into the universe at a certain frequency" or instead because you've programmed your subconscious mind to bring to your conscious attention anything specifically related to your goal? To us, the latter possibility is just as wondrous as the former, though it sounds far less magical to some people, probably because it doesn't involve the use of the ever popular words "quantum" and "vibration".

Another thing to keep in mind is that "the secret" was never a secret at all. Books like As a Man Thinketh by James Allen and The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel covered the same ground (and covered it more thoroughly) long before The Secret became a self-help phenomenon. Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, didn't hide the fact that the inspiration for the movie came from reading a book by Wallace D. Wattles called The Science of Getting Rich, which was first published in 1910. The so-called secret has been popular, well-known, and easily accessible to everyone for nearly a century.

If the techniques described in The Secret aren't working for you, we recommend reading one of the books mentioned above and applying the methods described in those books instead. Each of the books is a quick, easy read. They emphasize not only the need to direct your thoughts and emotions toward your goals but also the importance of fully embodying your intent through your actions as a way to bring about the results you desire, and they provide clear advice and techniques to help you align your day-to-day actions with your intent.