The Growth Mindset Book Podcast: Mindset Mastery Chapter by Chapter

The Gratitude Secret: How to Connect to the Divine and Guarantee Your Riches

• Michael Fox • Season 2 • Episode 4

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The Gratitude Secret: How to Connect to the Divine and Guarantee Your Riches (Wallace Wattles' Chapter Dissected)

Discover the hidden force that was key to the creation of The Secret movie and book.

In this powerful episode, we dive deep into the most transformative chapter of Wallace Wattles’ 1910 classic, The Science of Getting Rich. This isn't just about financial wealth; it’s about guaranteed abundance in health, happiness, peace, and money.

You will learn:

  • The First Step to Riches: Why you must be absolutely specific in communicating your desires to the "Formless Substance" (God/The Universe).
  • The Divine Connection: How Gratitude is the single word that creates a harmonious, direct link between you and the source of all abundance.
  • The Law of Reciprocity: Why a lack of gratitude cuts your wire to the Divine, stopping the flow of blessings.
  • Creative vs. Competitive Thought: Learn how celebrating others' wins brings instantaneous, continuous movement of the things you want towards you. Stop the cycle of jealousy and blame that keeps you stuck.
  • The Birth of Faith: How practicing gratitude will naturally develop unshakeable faith that your desires are on their way.

Stop focusing on lack, complaining about politics, or letting competitive thoughts limit your supply. Listen to this dissecting chapter on Gratitude, and learn the practical steps to shift your mindset, reprogram your subconscious, and guarantee you have more to be grateful for.

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SPEAKER_00:

I'm excited for our podcast today because we're going to be talking about a book that's one of my favorite books that's had a tremendous impact on my life. And I believe when I share this one specific chapter with you, it's going to have an overwhelming impact in your life as well. The book was written in 1910 by Wallace Waddles. It's called The Science of Getting Rich. You may or may not have heard of it. It was actually the book that was used to create the movie The Secret. I'm going to talk about this chapter, Gratitude. So let's jump in. I'm going to dissect it for you because when you read it yourself without context, without explanation, it can be a bit challenging to read. Let's jump in. The first paragraph says the illustrations given in the last chapter will convey to the reader the fact that the first step toward getting rich is to convey the idea of your wants to the formless substance. So let's pause and ask what does this mean? Essentially, what it's saying is in order for us to get rich, now it doesn't just mean rich in money. It could be wealthy in health, wealthy in happiness, wealthy in peace, wealthy in all different areas of our life, including financial wealth. But what it's saying here is that in order to get what we want, we need to know what we want. So we got to be really clear on what we want. I could say I want a lot of money. And if I put that out there, he says, convey the idea of your wants to the formless substance. The formless substance is God, the divine, the universe. So we have to know what we want and we have to put it out there to God, divine, or the universe. Problem is, if I say I want more money, that's not very clear. It's not giving really good instructions. And more money could be I get a check for$30. That does give me what I'm asking for in that scenario, which is more money. It wasn't what I wanted, but I asked for it in a very nonspecific way. So what it's saying here is we must be very specific on what it is that we want. So if you want to earn$137,000 extra this year, or you want to earn$137,000 this year, you have to say it out loud in present tense. I am earning this year$137,000. You're putting it out there. It's very clear. You've now communicated to the formless substance. Let's go back to the book. It says this is true, and you will see that in order to do it becomes necessary to relate yourself to the formless intelligence in a harmonious way. So, how do we relate ourselves to this formless intelligence, to God, divine, the universe, in a harmonious way? It's going to get into that in this next paragraph. To secure this harmonious relation is a matter of such primary and vital importance that I shall give some space to its discussion here and give you instructions, which, if you will follow them, will be certain to bring you into perfect unity of the mind with God. Again, how do we create this relationship with God in a harmonious way? He's saying that it's so important to do this that we're going to take the time to really give specific instructions on how we're going to do that. Let's continue with this chapter. The whole process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word gratitude. We're talking about getting wealthy in many areas of our life. And the way that we connect with God, the divine, this higher power, is through gratitude. That is a key element. Would you have thought that the way to connect to God, divine, the higher power, would have been just through gratitude? Gratitude gets us on the frequency of divine. The more thankful we are for all the things that we currently have in our life, the more time we spend focusing on gratitude, being thankful for everything. I walk into the room, I turn on the light, the light switch goes on, and the lights come on in the room. That's something I could be thankful for. I walk and sit down on my desk and I push the button on the computer, and the computer comes on and it has all of my applications and all the documents and all the files that I need. That's something I can be unbelievably grateful for. Everything I'm sitting, I'm breathing, I'm able to see the screen, I'm able to hear. All of these things are things that we can be grateful for. The way that we connect to God is through gratitude. Let's go back to the book. First, you believe that there is one intelligent substance from which all things proceed. What does that mean? There is one God, there is one universe from which everything comes. That's step number one. Step number two is believe that this God gives you everything you desire. So we have to have the belief that everything that we could possibly want, God will give to us. Now, some of you might say, but Mike, what about when I get sick? What about when I'm not feeling well? Is that something that I really desire? If God or divine knows a lot more than we do, perhaps during that time of not feeling well, you'll figure out something that you wouldn't have figured out had you not been in that case. You'll make a decision about something in your life, being in that quiet time of not feeling so great, but sitting there and being with yourself, you'll have the opportunity to think through and see things from a different perspective. So when it says here that you have to believe that this God gives you everything you desire, that it's important to understand that even if we don't think that's something that we would desire to be sick, to not feel well, maybe there's a hidden message in it for us. And maybe there's a reason and purpose that we're not feeling well. The third step says you relate yourself to God, the divine, by feeling a deep and profound gratitude. Let's continue. Many people who order their lives rightly in all of their ways are kept in poverty by the lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with God by failing to make the acknowledgement. I've said this story before, I'm going to say it again. I want you to imagine that you get a really beautiful gift for your child. You wrap it up, you put it in beautiful paper on it, and a nice bow, and you bring it into your child's room and you give them the present, and they take the present and they throw it across the room, showing no gratitude whatsoever for that gift. Here's the question I have for you. If they did that to the gift that you gave them, what would be the chances that you would then go out and buy another gift and give it to your child? I already know the answer. It would be slim to none. And why is it that you wouldn't do that? Why isn't that you wouldn't go and get another gift for your child? The answer is because the child didn't show any gratitude. So imagine that God is giving us gifts all the time. God gives us the gift of being able to breathe. God gives us the gift of being able to see. God gives us the gift of being able to stand up and walk. We have so many gifts in our lives: our family, our health, our friends. All of these things can easily be taken for granted. And when we take those things for granted, you know what happens? It's very similar to the child taking the gift and throwing it across the room at the wall. God looks as our parent and says, If Mike isn't going to appreciate all that I've already given him, why in the world would I give him more? So when we have gratitude, think of it as we are directly connected to God. We have a direct connection into us when we're showing that gratitude. And when we don't show the gratitude, it's like taking a scissors and cutting that wire that's connecting you, me, and everyone else to God. So the way that we can keep it connected is staying in a place of feeling gratitude for all the things that we already have in our life. All right, let's go back to the book. It's easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source, to God, the source of wealth, which is God, the more wealth we shall receive. And it's easy also to understand that the soul that is always grateful lives in closer touch with God than the one which never looks to him in a thankful acknowledgement. We pause for a second. Again, this goes back to the same thing. If we don't show gratitude for all the things that we already have, why would God want to give us more? If our child doesn't show us gratitude for all the things that we give to him or her, do we have the feeling of wanting to give them more? But the more gratitude the child shows us, the more they say, Thank you. I really appreciate you getting that from me. God, that was so nice of you to do. Thank you so much. Don't we want to then go out and get more for them and give them more? That's the same thing that God feels with us. That's the same reason why we're not getting the things that we want from God because we're not showing the gratitude for the things that we already have in our life. Let's go back to the book. The more gratefully we fix our minds on the supreme, on God, when good things come to us, the more good things we will receive. So let's repeat that again. The more gratefully we fix our minds on the supreme, when good things come to us, the more good things we will receive. And the more rapidly they will come. And the reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which all blessings come. So if you want more things to come into your life, if you want more abundance, if you more want more financial freedom, if you want a better relationship, be grateful for all the things that you already do have. Maybe your relationship isn't perfect, but instead of focusing on all the negative in that relationship, she says this, he does that. What about focusing on saying, hey, God, thank you so much for bringing this person into my life? I love how they're caring and loving towards me. And point out things that you can be grateful for in that person. The more we do that in a relationship, the better the relationship will get. The problem is most of the time when someone's in a relationship that they're not thrilled about, their focus is not on gratitude. It's on the complete opposite. It's pointing out every single thing that person does wrong, either to the person directly or in our mind, we're thinking thoughts of I can't believe she does that. I can't believe he does this. And that is cutting that line, that connection that we have to God, because we're not doing what we need to do to hold our connection to God, which is to have gratitude for everything. Maybe the person that we're in a relationship said something that hurt our feelings, but maybe God put that there in our life for a reason and purpose. Maybe we need to learn how to draw a boundary. Maybe we need to learn how to speak up for ourselves. Maybe we need to learn how to look inside internally and see why I am being triggered by that statement. God, I'm so thankful that you put that situation into my life because it allowed me to look at things in a different perspective. It allowed me to look inside of myself, grow and learn and see why I'm dealing with this struggle internally, that I don't feel like I'm worthy enough or I'm not good enough. Thank you for blessing me with that opportunity. You see the difference? We're taking a situation which we can complain about and be miserable about. And instead, we're trying to find things that we can be grateful for. And the more that you do that, the more gratitude you will have in your life, the more gifts that will be bestowed upon you. In fact, if that relationship isn't really the best relationship, the more grateful you are for it, either that relationship will shift, or because you're so grateful for the things, you'll be shifted out of that relationship and into something else. When you pay your bill every single month and you get that bill, it's your mortgage, and you're like, oh, you know, I write that check and it's taking this money out of my account. No, that's coming from a place of lack. That is not coming from a place of gratitude. It's God, thank you so much for giving me the money that's in my account so that I can pay that bill. Imagine each time you pay a bill, whether it's your phone bill or an electric bill or your mortgage, that you write that check and you say, Thank you, God. Thank you for giving me the money so that I'm able to pay the bills. I really appreciate that. When you do that, are you connecting that line to God or are you cutting that line? And of course, by being grateful, we're strengthening that line, we're making it even more strong and we're adding bandwidth to it so that we can even receive more blessing. What do you think about what this is saying so far? Do you think that's a possibility that if you have more gratitude in your life, that it may connect you and you actually may have more things to be grateful for because you're being so grateful? Look at how maybe you have been doing things. Maybe you've been coming from a place of complaining and not being grateful for the things that you already have and things have been stagnant and you haven't been getting the things that you want. Maybe it would make sense to give this a try to have an experiment and try to see if I have this gratitude for all these things in my life, and if I say it out loud, and if I thank God, let me see what happens over time if I do that. Let's go back to the book. If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energies of God, the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true. The good things you already have come to you along the line of obedience to certain laws. Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which things come, and it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought. Now, this is a great line. It says it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought. Creative thought is thinking good thoughts, thinking kind thoughts, thinking abundant thoughts, thinking gratitude. And it will prevent you from falling into competitive thought. Let's talk about competitive thought for a moment. You have a friend, you find out the friend made an investment and made$400,000 on that investment. What's the initial thought that goes through your mind when they tell you? Are you happy for them? Or is there a part of you inside that is feeling a little bit jealous, a little bit like, man, I work hard, I do good things. Why don't things like this happen to me? That's competitive thinking. If we're all connected, which we are all connected to one another, because when you break us down into the smallest molecules, there's atoms and electrons and neutrons, these things are all connected to one another. They've done studies where they've shown that you take an electron in one place and you have another one in a completely different place, and they're both vibrating and acting the same way. So if that's the case, that would be an argument for that we are all connected. And if we're all connected and we're having competitive thought, meaning we're feeling jealous and we're like, they don't really deserve that in their life. What type of thoughts might come back in your life from the higher source? Do you think you're more likely to get more things in your life or less because you're having this competitive thinking? What if instead, when that friend says to us that I just made$400,000, we say to ourselves, that's wonderful. I am so happy for you. I'm so grateful that you were given that gift. That is a beautiful thing, and I am so happy for you. What if we did that and we thought like that for all kinds of things that are outside of our circumstances and we celebrate other people's wins as if there are wins? Do you think potentially that might give us the opportunity to have more wins and have more celebrations in our own life? If we're celebrating everyone else out there as well, instead of being jealous, instead of blaming, instead of complaining, instead of talking about them. Why do they always get this? Why do they? No, we're grateful. We're grateful that they're winning. If someone that we don't really like in our life has something really good happen in their life, should we be upset about that? Or should we be grateful for them? And the answer is, and it's very high level, but the answer is we should be grateful for them. Because if we're all connected, we should be grateful for everyone winning and everyone doing well and good things happening for everyone as if it's us. And what will happen is we will have way more to be grateful for in our own life when we live that attitude of gratitude and we celebrate other people's wins instead of allowing jealousy and any other negative thoughts to come in and take over. Let's continue with the book. Gratitude alone can keep you looking toward the all and prevent you from falling into the error of thinking of the supply as limited. And to do that would be fatal to your hoax. Again, the more we look at someone else and we say, I can't believe they got that. They don't really deserve that new car. They don't deserve that new house. If we celebrate it, then our supply won't be limited. It will be coming in abundance because we're celebrating everyone else doing well, and therefore we'll have a lot to celebrate as well. Give and you shall receive. Give gratitude, you'll receive gratitude in many ways, and you'll have a lot to be thankful for. Back to the book. There is a law of gratitude, and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law if you're to get the results you see. The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. What does that mean for a second? That if I'm putting gratitude out, like we just said, that it not only will it go out, but it comes back immediately to us in all kinds of ways. Let's continue back to the book. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the God is a liberation or expenditure of force, right? When we're thankful to God, we're putting out energy, it cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed. And the reaction is an instantaneous movement towards you. So as I put out that gratitude, instantaneously, there is a force of gratitude coming back to us. There is a force that's going to come back to give us things to be thankful for because we're being thankful for things out there. Let's go back to the book. If your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in formless substance, the reaction in God will be strong and continuous. The movement of things that you want will always move towards you. The value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude, you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are. So again, without living in this attitude of gratitude and being thankful for not only the things we have, but the things that other people are receiving, then suddenly our thoughts will shift and we won't be coming from this place of gratitude. The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, and the squalid and mean, and your mind takes the form of these things. Then you will transmit these forms or mental images to the formless to God, and the common, the poor, the squalid, and mean will come to you. So it's really simple. Whatever we put out is what's going to come back. If we're constantly putting out a lack of gratitude, we're going to have many things to not be grateful for in our life. It's a give and receive. Give and you will shall receive. Back to the book. To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best and to become the best. God within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention. The power within us gives us what we're focused on. If I am focused on negativity, if I am focused on lack, if I am focused on a lack of abundance, I will see more of that in my life. But if I turn it and just focus on gratitude, and I'm thankful that I have what I have in my bank account, I'm thankful that I have the health that I have. I'm thankful that I have the family, that I have the relationship that I have. If I'm thankful for these things, I will have more to be thankful for. More things will come into my life that I will be thankful for. That's how it works. Back to the book. Therefore, it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best and will receive the best. Again, that's saying exactly what we've been saying over and over again. Back to the book. Also, faith is born of gratitude. You hear people say a lot, how can I have faith that things will work out? Faith is born of gratitude. The more things that you're grateful for, the more faithful you will be in your life that things will work out. Gratitude is such a beautiful thing. If we can just start to slowly shift into being thankful for the things that we have in our life and the things that other people are having in their life and celebrating them, magical things begin to happen in life. Back to the book. The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one's own mind produces faith. And every outgoing wave of gratitude, thanksgiving increases faith. The more grateful I am, the more faithful I become. The more faith I have that things are going to work out in my life. You want to have faith? Be grateful. He who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain living faith. And without living faith, you cannot get rich by the creative method. But we shall see that in the following chapters. If you want wealth in your life, I promise you, if you live from a place of gratitude and really live from a place of gratitude for everything, you will start to see your life will shift. Because when you're living in gratitude, what you're not doing is living in blaming, complaining, making excuses, talking negatively about others. You would never do that when you're living in a place of gratitude. You'd be thankful for them. You'd be thankful for the gift that they've given you in learning the lesson that they provided for you. Maybe they're being judgmental and they're talking about other people. Perhaps that is coming in front of you. So you have the opportunity to potentially not be as judgmental yourself and be grateful that you actually had that come into your life. And instead of talking about that person and judging them, use that as a gift and be grateful that that gift just came to you. Does that make sense? Every good thing that comes to you, everything, be grateful for it and give thanks continuously. And be and because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. Again, no matter what comes at us, we are grateful for it. Because there's some lesson in there, even if we can't see what it is that we can be thankful for. Now, what some people do when I get to something like this will be thankful for everything. Mike, how can I be grateful if someone I know passes away? What if my son gets sick and gets cancer? Here's what I have to say. When you start in martial arts, you start at a white belt for a reason. And the reason you start as a white belt is because you have to learn the fundamentals. You're not at a place, you haven't had enough experience to be able to do the things that black belts do. When you start asking the question, how can I be grateful if my son has cancer? You're operating from a black belt perspective when truly you are a white or yellow belt. And we are not talking about coming at gratitude from a black belt perspective. Let's start where we're at and work our way up the ladder. So be grateful for all the things that you can be grateful for, even if there are some things that you can say, I can't be grateful for that. Fine. You don't need to be the black belt, be the white and yellow belt right now, and we'll work our way to a place where eventually down the road, maybe you could be thankful for a situation that certainly doesn't appear at first sight to be something that we could be thankful for. All right, let's continue. We're almost towards the end here. Do not waste time thinking or talking about the shortcomings or wrong actions of the government. Their organization of the world has made your opportunity. All you get really comes to you because of them. This is A great thing. Republican, Democrat. If you're a Republican, you may not like the Democrats. If you're a Democrat, you may not like the Republicans. Spend your time focusing on the things that you can be grateful for. If you spend your time focusing on politics, are you going to get more things to be grateful for? Are you going to be coming from a place of lack and not from a place of gratitude? There are things like politics that if we focus on them, it will take us away from gratitude. Good news is we don't have to focus on that, and we can focus on other things that would make more sense and bring us more happiness and well-being in our life. And gratitude is that answer. Here are the last two paragraphs. Do not rage against corrupt politicians. If it were not for politicians, we should fall into anarchy, and your opportunity would be greatly lessened. Last paragraph. But in the meantime, behold, they are all very good. Remember that they are all helping to arrange the lines of transmission along which your riches will come to you and be grateful to them all. This will bring you into a harmonious relation with the good in everything. And the good in everything will move towards you. That last line, this will bring you into harmonious relations with the good in everything, and the good in everything will move towards you. The more you can find gratitude in every situation, both good and what appear to be bad in your life, the more things in your life you will have to be grateful for. Is the expectation that studying this chapter is going to suddenly make you change completely? No. You can't go into the gym, sit down on the bench press, put 300 pounds on each side, and expect that you're going to be able to lift it up. But we start out small, we start out gradually, and we start out being grateful for some things in our life. And then we add another thing and another thing. And before you know it, gratitude is a habit that we're living on a consistent basis. That said, here's what my suggestion is practice slowly. Practice gratitude slowly. Start to find things that you can be grateful for in your life. If it was me and I were you, I would listen to this podcast 20, 30, 40, 50 times. Because what's going to happen when you listen to it, you're going to hear the same message over and over. It's going to cause the repetition, it causes habitual behavior. It causes programming in our subconscious mind. And the more we hear a message over and over, the more we start to actually act from that place. So rather than watch the news and hear these negative messages over and over and start to become cynical of our world, perhaps instead we spend our time listening to this, sharing this message with others so that we can have this programmed into our subconscious so that we can come from a place of gratitude, so that we can have more love, happiness, peace, better relationships, more money, happier in our job and career, better spirituality, family life is happy. All good things in our life come from being grateful. That's it for today. I hope you got something really good from this, and I wish you all the best. I am grateful that I have all of you in my life. Please share this message with others.

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Michael Fox

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