I was raised in a family with meager means, but with an attitude of optimism and self sufficiency. There were a few phrases commonly used in our family of five: “Be careful what you wish for” and “If it can be fixed with money, it is not a loss”. I always believed in these statements and I tried to apply them to my life.

When I saw Rhonda Byrne and “The Secret” on Oprah, February 8th 2007, I couldn’t believe it. This is exactly what I had been doing all my life and didn’t know it – sticky notes with goals written on them, mantras I had used day in and day out about what I was striving for, and a belief that things would work out when faced with adversity and unexpected challenges. As a matter of fact, my husband (a very frugal and somewhat pessimistic partner) would always laugh at me because every time we faced a financial challenge I would say, “It’s okay, there’ll will be more money…I’ll get a bonus or we’ll get a bigger tax refund or something will come our way.”

And guess what!? It ALWAYS DID, like magic. He continues to be amazed.

I couldn’t believe it when I was watching Oprah that day. The show wasn’t even half way over when I got online on my computer and ordered the video from Amazon. Over the next two months I watched the video, talked about life with my husband, with my mom, with myself. We knew that we needed to make a change. So, we decided what we wanted and I wrote it down.

We weren’t happy where we were living – it was too cold, our community of friends hadn’t grown since we’d moved there, and although my career was absolutely fantastic, our family and personal situation wasn’t. Life wasn’t fun, it was out of balance. The Secret says you CAN have it all, you don’t have to settle, you don’t have to compromise. Okay, so now I was going to put it to the test.

So, I wrote down where we’d want to live (back home near family), what my job title would be, what my base salary and bonus percentage would be, what our lifestyle would be like, exactly which neighborhood we’d live in and where our girls would be in school by that following Fall! Not only that, I wrote down that once I got the job, we would put our house on the market and sell it within the first week of the listing. Hey, The Secret says you can have it all, I was going for it!!

Ready? Here’s what happened. Within 8 weeks I had given notice and accepted a job in my home state near family, the offer included the title, base and bonus EXACTLY as I had written it down (and NO, I had not indicated to the recruiter what I wanted or needed). We also listed our house on MLS on a Wednesday, and didn’t allow showings until the following Sunday. That Sunday night, at 9:30pm we accepted an offer and sold the house. A burden I didn’t have to carry into my first day on the job. This was in 2007, the housing market had already dropped significantly, but we didn’t suffer.

I KNOW it was The Secret! And, yes, my kids started school in the fall. EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING came true.

It has been 18 months since we manifested the above changes in our lives, and The Secret still works. My only advice to those of you reading this is to have faith, listen to your heart, read the book whenever you need reminding – and KNOW, LIKE YOU KNOW, LIKE YOU KNOW it will come true.

I couldn’t be happier. I know you can be, too!