Joe Vitale is the author of several best-selling self-help books, such as The Key, The Attractor Factor, Zero Limits and Hypnotic Writing, and the creator of popular audio and DVD programmes, including The Missing Secret and The Power of Outrageous Marketing. He has also appeared on talk shows, made cameos in films, such as The Secret, and now says he is well-off.
Vitale has come a long way from living on the streets in Dallas - 'probably around 1976, 1977, 1978' - when a firm went bankrupt with his savings. In The Awakening Course: The Secret to Solving All Problems, he asks: 'How did that person become this person?' The key is finding happiness by transcending your toughest problems - and the need to struggle or make some 'effort' through life - through what he calls the 'four stages of awakening', Vitale says.
In the first stage of 'victimhood', Vitale urges readers not to think like victims because bad things can create changes for the good. Citing how the fuel crises led to more economic cars, Vitale says 'awakening' begins when you audit and 'breathe through' your fears and failures, and stop blaming everyone for your woes, allowing you to create a new 'reality' for yourself.
To 'awaken' you must take responsibility for failures, learn from hurt and recognise the need 'to do things differently', Vitale says. Then audit your strengths, because whatever you decide to focus on, you do best.
In the second stage of 'empowerment', Vitale describes how good things can come to you, even at 'the right seminar', when you move on and are happy inside. His 'laws of attraction' then state how 'everything you are getting in life, you are attracting because of your conscious beliefs'.
Tackle self-confidence and deservedness issues and you'll feel more empowered. Visualise your goal 'with feeling' and 'the universe will supply it to you', Vitale says, offering meditation guidelines.