The usual things that make up a person's to-do list include losing weight, embarking on a fitness regimen, earning more money, improving a personal relationship and finding one's happiness. Every year, however, most of us find ourselves wishing for the same things as if the year that had passed failed to produce positive results for us.

Does it mean that losing weight or getting rich is an impossible dream? Can the perfect life partner be so elusive that we have to keep wishing to find one every year?

All these questions and more seem to have simple answers, if we follow the ideas presented by Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. This book gained media attention after Oprah Winfrey mentioned it in her show. Many were intrigued by its title and others who read it could not stop raving about its contents.

There is a reason why the book is a best-seller.

It includes much about the mind's power. Its message is that by changing the way you think from a negative to a positive outline, outcomes will turn positive as well.

The basic premise of the secret is "The Law of Attraction." Unlike the scientific law of attraction which holds that opposite forces attract while like forces repel, The Secret's Law of Attraction holds that: "like attracts like".

In life, what one thinks, one attracts. Therefore, positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, and vice versa. You can achieve it if you think it.

If you were to apply the law of attraction to a weight loss goal, for example, then all that you need to do is to think of yourself having a slimmer body and with all of the excess weight gone.

Block off all thought that losing weight is going to be a painful and difficult process. Discard the old cliché of "no pain, no gain." Think instead: "to weigh less is painless."

Positive thinking also involves the visualization of your goal. Imagine yourself with a trim figure. Create mental images of having a stunning silhouette. And then hold that thought always as you encourage yourself to observe your weight loss plan.

If you truly believe and see that you can achieve all your dreams, all the things that make up your dreams will come flowing to you.