After watching The Secret, I wrote all of my goals on a piece of paper and posted it above my desk. One of my seven major goals was to have my book of poems published by a major press. For two months after watching The Secret, I did nothing but visualize and evoke the feelings of ecstatic empowerment that come with having a book published.

Now, bear in mind that I didn’t know how I would do this. I just knew that I would do it. Most established poets will tell you that you must have had at least the majority of the poems in your book published in well-known magazines before you have any hope of getting them published in book form.

I refused to believe that. I simply believed that my book would be published and on the shelves of Barnes & Noble within a year.

Two weeks after I started my visualization, I received an email from the editor of a well-known press saying that he was considering the manuscript I had submitted to him two months before and had totally forgotten about! I was floored.

So, I printed out the painting that I wanted for my book cover and wrote the title on the front. I wrote my list of acknowledgments, and I wrote his acceptance email to me and posted it above my bed. I continuously visualized what I would do when I received the good news: going to class and uncorking a bottle of champagne; calling my parents. I designed invitations to the celebration I would have when I received the good news. I told a few of my students that I had published a book.

Soon enough, I got a phone call from an unfamiliar area code. It was the editor of the press saying that he’d like to publish my book of poems and would send me a contract and further information ASAP. This stuff works!!!!