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many things right. The people you spend time with shape what you believe is possible. When you're around someone who's actively thinking about their future, visualizing their future, and rearranging their time to create that future, something happens to you. You start thinking about your future differently. You start asking better questions. You start seeing your own time differently. Doesn't mean you'll get exactly what you want. Doesn't mean every dream shows up on schedule. But it does mean you're no longer just drifting through the day, reacting to whatever's in front of you. And that one lunch can shift your entire trajectory. That's what Beyond the Secret is all about. The parts that actually work and why they work. Hi, I'm TJ Walker, your host, and this is a limited series podcast from Ultimize, the world's largest personal development podcast, audiobook, and online learning network. Beyond The Secret: The Law of Attraction for People Who Do the Work. Subscribe now. There's a lot more where that came from. The Law of Attraction is now old enough to need an update. Now, that may sound strange, but the ideas behind it are much older than The Secret, positive thinking, visualization, mental rehearsal, faith in a better future. People have been talking about these things for thousands of years, but the modern Law of Attraction boom became a global phenomenon about 20 years ago. There was the book, the movie, all the interviews, the vision boards, the stories of people picturing checks, homes, relationships, business successes, and a completely different life. That message reached millions of people, and for a lot of people, it helped. Gave them hope, got them thinking about possibility. It made them ask better questions about their future. That matters. But here's the problem. A lot of people heard the message, felt inspired, and then nothing much changed. They watched the movie, they bought the book, they highlighted the quotes, they maybe even put pictures on a board, and then their Tuesday looked exactly like Monday. Their daily habits didn't change. Their environment didn't change. Their calendar didn't change. Their phone still controlled their attention. Their old friends still reinforced the old same patterns. Their daily behaviors still pointed toward the same life. That's why information alone has never been enough, not for the Law of Attraction, not for goal setting, not for health, not for money. Not for relationships, not for anything that really matters, frankly. If information were enough, everyone who owns a cookbook would be thin, beautiful, and eating beautifully arranged vegetables under perfect lighting. If information were enough, everyone with a personal finance book would be rich. If information were enough, everyone who watched a motivational video would immediately become organized, focused, disciplined, and impossible to stop. That's not how human beings work. We don't change because we heard one good idea one time. We change because something gets repeated often enough, emotionally enough, and practically enough that it starts becoming part of how we operate. That's not weakness, it's just behavior. Think about your car. The seatbelt alert doesn't say, "Excuse me, we already mentioned seatbelts once in the owner's manual, so we'll never bring it up again." No, it dings and dings and dings. It's annoying, it's repetitive, it's not intellectually elegant, but guess what? It works because eventually most people put on the seatbelt automatically because of those instant daily reminders. That's behavior architecture. It's the design of repeated cues that make the better action easier to perform. And once you start seeing behavior architecture, you see it everywhere. Netflix doesn't just hope you remember to watch another episode, it autoplays. Amazon doesn't just hope you remember to buy something later, it recommends what you should buy. Your phone doesn't politely trust you to check it once a day, oh no, It buzzes, flashes, lights up, and taps you on the brain every few minutes like a tiny needy salesperson living in your pocket. Advertisers don't show you one message and say, "Well, we did our best." No, no, they repeat. They repeat for years. Same brand, same colors, same promise, same emotional hook, same messages. Why? Because repetition works. The uncomfortable truth is that most of your behavior is already being shaped by repeated messages. The only question is whether those messages are designed by you or designed by someone trying to sell you, sell you fries or streaming or outrage or sports bets or another object that will sit in your closet and until your next decluttering crisis. And yeah, I say that as someone who's occasionally bought things online with the confidence of a visionary and the judgment of a raccoon in a jewelry store. We all get shaped. The question is, who's doing the shaping? That's why the law of attraction needs a modern update. 20 years ago, the big challenge was getting people to believe their thoughts mattered. Today the bigger challenge is protecting your attention long enough to even have your own thoughts. That's different. That's a huge change. You're not trying to visualize a better future, you're trying to visualize a better future while trillion-dollar companies are using brilliant engineers, psychologists, designers, and algorithms to pull your attention back to their vision of your future. Their future for you is simple: scroll more, watch more, click more, buy more, react more, stay on the site longer, stay on the app longer, come back sooner. Your future has to compete with that. That's why a single inspirational moment won't do it. You need reinforcement. You need reminders. You need your own repeated messages. You need a structure that pulls you back toward the life you're trying to build. That's why certain ideas here will come back again, not because you didn't understand them the first time. You probably did. You're smart. You get it. The reason they come back is because understanding isn't the finish line. Repetition is what turns understanding into behavior. A reset is not a filler. A reset is a seatbelt ding for your future. It brings you back to the reason you started. It interrupts the drift. It says, hold on, don't slide back into the old pattern just because life got noisy again. That's the real work. And this is where the Law of Attraction becomes more than a nice idea. It becomes a daily operating system. You clarify what you want. You repeat it. You connect it to the behavior. You shape your environment. You choose better inputs. You spend more time with people who reinforce the future you want. You create cues that make the right action easier, not once, but repeatedly. That's the modern version, not just visualization and hope, But visualize, reinforce, act, reset, repeat. Now it's not as glamorous as imagining a check arriving in the mail. It's much more useful because your life is not changed by the idea you admire once. Your life is changed by the message you hear often enough to act on. So let's use the strongest part of the Law of Attraction. Let's keep the vision, Let's keep the future focus. Let's keep the belief that your life can become more intentional than it is right now. But let's add the missing piece. Let's build the reinforcement system that makes the vision harder to forget and easier to live because the future you want doesn't just need inspiration. It needs reminders, structures, repetition, and it needs you coming back to it long after the first burst of excitement fades. A plan is not a plan, it's a direction. No, that's not a criticism, it's a clarification. A vision can be extremely powerful. It can pull you out of drift. It can make you look at your life and say, 'Hey, this is not all there is.' It can make the future feel possible before there's any evidence that it's possible. That matters. That's valuable. That's one of the best things the law of attraction gives people. But a vision by itself is still incomplete. It's like standing on one side of a river pointing to the other side and saying, "That's where I want to be." Okay, good, great, important first step. But now we have to ask the inconvenient adult question: Where's the bridge? Because wanting to be on the other side doesn't get you across. Believing the other side exists doesn't get you across. Feeling emotionally aligned with the other side doesn't get you across. You still need a bridge. And in real life, that bridge is built out of daily behavior, small behavior, specific behavior, repeatable behavior. Usually it's boring behavior. That's why a lot of people skip it. The vision is exciting. The bridge is not. The vision is the mansion. The bridge is making 5 calls. The vision is the healthy body. The bridge is walking after dinner and not treating the pantry like a casino. The vision is the thriving business. The bridge is sending the proposal, improving the offer, following up, and doing the unglamorous administrative work that apparently no one includes on a dream board. But the bridge is where the future gets built. This is where many people accidentally turn the Law of Attraction into entertainment. They picture, they affirm, they journal, they feel better. And feeling better is good. I'm not against feeling better. I built a whole career around helping people feel more confident, more capable, and more ready to take action. But if the feeling doesn't create movement, it becomes a very pleasant holding pattern. You're circling the airport, you're not landing. So here's the practical move: take any vision you have and break it into 3 levels. First, there's the outcome. Second, the identity. Third, the daily behavior. The outcome is what you want. I want to build a successful business. I want to become financially independent. I want to be healthier. I want to become a more confident leader. That's the destination. Fine, write it down, make it clear, make it vivid. But now go one level deeper. What identity would support that outcome. A person who builds a successful business is not merely a person who wants one. That person may be someone who solves problems, makes offers, studies customers, communicates clearly, and keeps going after rejection. A financially independent person may be someone who saves, invests, learns, tracks spending, and doesn't buy every shiny object the internet waves in front of them. And yeah, I say that as someone who's occasionally clicked buy now with the spiritual confidence of a man receiving divine intervention from Amazon. Identity matters, but even identity is not enough. Now go one level deeper. What is the daily behavior? That's where everything becomes honest. Quickly. If the vision is business success, the daily behavior must be reaching out to 3 potential clients, for example. If the vision is writing a book, the daily behavior might be writing 500, maybe 1,000 words every day. If the vision is health, the daily behavior might be walking or running 30 minutes and preparing one real meal that didn't arrive in a bag through a car window. If the vision is becoming a better leader, the daily behavior might be having one thoughtful conversation without interrupting, checking your phone, or mentally preparing your own TED Talk while the other person is still speaking. That's the bridge: outcome, identity, daily behavior. It's not complicated, but it's not easy either. It is clear and clarity is kind. Vagueness feels comfortable, but it's cruel. Vagueness lets you say, 'I'm working on myself,' while doing absolutely nothing specific enough to fail at. Specific behavior gives you feedback. You did it or you didn't. You made the call or you didn't. You wrote the page or you didn't. You went for the walk or you didn't. There's no drama, no self-hatred, it's just data. And data is useful, that's why the bridge has to be specific. I want abundance is not a bridge. I will send one serious business building message every weekday before noon is a bridge. I want to attract better people is not a bridge. I will attend one event a week where builders, creators, or serious professionals gather is a bridge. I want more confidence is not a bridge. I will record myself practicing one important conversation or speech every morning for 5 minutes. That's a bridge. This is the grounded version of attraction. You don't abandon the vision, you honor it. You honor it by translating it into behavior. Because if you truly want a different future, your calendar should begin to look different, your conversations should begin to sound different, your environment should begin to feel different, your daily choices should begin to point in a new direction. That's when the Law of Attraction starts becoming useful. The vision gives you the other side of the river. The daily behavior gives you the bridge. And once you have the bridge, you are no longer standing there hoping the future comes to you. You are walking toward it. By the way, quick question for you. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to consume content and how hard it is to actually do anything with it? I mean, you can listen to 100 episodes, read 10 books, and your habits are exactly the same. That's the gap most people never close. So if you're listening to this and thinking, yeah, I want to actually improve, go to ultimize.com. We've got free courses there for you, either on communication skills or building better habits. And it's designed to get you to actually use what you're learning, not just hear it once. No cost, no catch. Just go to ultimize.com and start. Ultimize. Ultimize. Texas Republicans are about to require public school students to read passages from the Bible, and I have to say, finally, government overreach I can personally exploit. I know critics are upset. They say this is a violation of church and state. They say Texas politicians are using literature class to smuggle Christianity into public schools. They say local control apparently means Austin controls every local classroom. Fine. Well, those are serious concerns, but as a man whose real first name is Timothy, I feel seen. The T in TJ stands for Timothy. I used to wish it stood for truth and justice, much cooler, but apparently it stands for 2,000 years of unsolicited lifestyle advice. So if Texas wants students reading the Bible, I have suggestions. Start with 1 Timothy. That book, which is in the Bible, is basically ancient self-help with worse lighting. Texas is on the verge of approving a statewide required reading list for public school students, including Bible passages in multiple grades. This is unusual. Normally teachers, schools, districts, people close to actual children pick a lot of the reading material. But Texas has decided, no, no, no, we can't trust Mrs. Johnson in 8th grade English. She may have a master's degree, 30 years of classroom experience, and an actual relationship with the students, but does she have what really matters? A politically appointed board in Austin with a 10-to-5 Republican majority? I think not. So now Texas students may soon be reading Bible excerpts as part of public school. And I know the expected commentary here. I'm supposed to say this is dangerous. I'm supposed to say this is religious nationalism. I'm supposed to say this is another example of conservatives screaming about indoctrination while sprinting into the classroom carrying a King James Bible and a dry erase marker. And yeah, all true. But today I want to be generous. I want to be constructive. I want to meet Texas where Texas is. If Texas is going to require Bible readings, I say go all in. Don't stop with the majestic passages. Don't just give students Noah's Ark, the Prodigal Son, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the parts everyone already puts on throw pillows. No, let's get practical. Let's give students 1 Timothy because I have a personal connection here. My real first name is Timothy. That is what the T in TJ Walker stands for. And for years I thought, well, that's just a normal biblical name. Then I started reading 1 Timothy and I realized I never had a chance. I was born into the self-help industry. 1 Timothy is not just theology, it is lifestyle optimization. It has advice on what to wear, what to drink, how to train, how to lead, how to handle money, and how not to embarrass yourself in public. This is not far from half the books in the airport self-help section. Modern personal development didn't invent this stuff. We just added podcasts, ring lights, affiliate links, and a premium subscription tier. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy. This isn't scripture, that's product extension. Most people get one letter, Timothy got a sequel. 1 Timothy was the basic course, 2 Timothy was the advanced mastermind. Timothy Premium, Timothy Plus, Timothy Live, Timothy Inner Circle. For only $97 a month, Paul will write you a personalized epistle. So yeah, Texas, let's teach the Bible, but let's teach the useful parts. Would you like to be the sort of successful person who is dominating news, at least in your industry? Well, if so, it's time to up your skills. At ultimize.com, I've created online courses to help you do that. Now, here's the thing. No obligation. You can get a free course on communication skills, a free course on how to build better habits. All you have to do is go to ultimize.com. That's ultimize.com. No obligation. Go there now. Start with 1 Timothy 2:9. It says women should dress modestly, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. Now, I'm not a theologian. I'm not here to interpret the deep doctrinal meaning, but I'm pretty sure that's not just scripture. That's an exhausted bridesmaid. Jennifer, this wedding is not about you. That is ancient image consulting. You think Instagram created fashion anxiety? No. 1 Timothy was already there saying essentially, maybe dial back the pearls. Imagine this in a Texas classroom. Children, today we will discuss separation of church and state. Also, Madison, the Lord has concern about your accessories. And I know some people will say, TJ Walker, are you mocking religion? No, I'm mocking Texas politicians who think they can put the Bible into public school without accidentally creating the funniest curriculum in American history. Because once you put the Bible into public school, students are going to ask student questions. Hey teacher, why can't she wear pearls? Teacher, what counts as elaborate hair? Teacher, is this about modesty or did 1 Timothy just have a bad experience at a wedding? And good luck answering that while also trying not to get sued. Then we get to 1 Timothy 5:23. This is one of my favorite. It says, stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. So it is in the Bible, but that's not just the Bible anymore. That is a wellness podcast. That is Timothy's gut health protocol. Guys, I'm not saying get drunk. I'm saying your microbiome needs a Pinot Noir. You can already see the Texas worksheet. Question 1: Why did Paul advise Timothy to use a little wine? A, stomach problems. B, frequent illness. C, ancient Mediterranean wellness culture. D, because even biblical figures couldn't get through a school board meeting sober. And please note, I'm not telling students to drink wine. I'm telling Texas politicians, when you mandate the Bible, you do not get to pick the only parts that sound like campaign commercials. You also get the part where the Bible says, Maybe water isn't enough. Try wine. Imagine the PTA meeting. My child came home and said the Bible recommends alcohol. No, ma'am, only a little wine. Oh, good, it clears it up. Thank you, public education. Then there is 1 Timothy 4:8. Physical training is of some value. This may be the greatest fitness line ever written because it's so honest. Not 'Unleash the beast,' not 'no excuses,' not 'crush your enemies with your core strength.' Just 'physical training is of some value.' That is the least committed gym slogan in history. Planet Fitness should put that over the door. Physical training is of some value. That is my kind of fitness program, not Navy SEAL training, not CrossFit, not a man named Brock screaming at you to flip a tractor tire at 5:30 in the morning. Just honestly, maybe stretch a little. And again, this would be useful for students because kids today are bombarded with insane body messaging. They think if they're not shredded by age 14, they have failed life. 1 Timothy brings balance. Should I exercise? Yes. Would solve everything? No. How much value does it have? Some. That's healthier than half of TikTok. Then 1 Timothy 3 gives qualifications for leaders. It says leaders should be temperate, self-controlled, respectable, not given to drunkenness. Yeah, that's in the Bible. Now, that's not ancient theology. That's corporate HR after a sales convention. 2,000 years later, humanity is still trying to master do not get drunk and text coworkers. This is where Texas could really help America. If you're gonna put Bible passages in public schools, make every future politician memorize that one. Respectable, self-control, not given to drunkenness. Imagine applying that standard to modern politics. Half of Congress would have to repeat 8th grade. And I'm not naming names, I do not have to. You already pictured 3 people. 1 Timothy is basically saying, before you put someone in charge, ask, can this person behave like an adult for 3 consecutive hours? This is radical stuff. Forget civics class, make every candidate sit for the 1 Timothy leadership exam. Question 1, are you respectable? Question 2, are you self-controlled? Question 3, have you ever confused a public office with a personal revenge podcast? Question 4: When someone disagrees with you, do you respond with policy, or do you call them a communist groomer on television? I would support this curriculum immediately. Then there is 1 Timothy 6:10, the famous money verse, and people misquote this all the time. They say money is the root of all evil. No, 1 Timothy says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, not money, love of money. Very important distinction. Apparently even in biblical times someone heard money's evil and another guy said, no, no, greed is evil, please keep donating. Human beings have always looked for loopholes. This is another great lesson for Texas students, especially in a state where everyone is told the free market is sacred right up until an oil company needs a tax break. The Bible is not saying you can't have money. It's saying maybe don't worship it, which is awkward because if Texas teaches that too well, some of these students may grow up and ask why their state treats billionaires like prophets and teachers like substitute babysitters with health insurance problems. That is the danger of making kids read. They might understand things, and that's why this whole Texas plan is so unintentionally funny. The politicians think they're bringing the Bible into schools to reinforce their preferred culture. But the Bible is a dangerous book, not because it's bad, because it's complicated. Yeah, it has poetry, it has contradictions, it has history, it has laws, it has violence, it has mercy, it has radical attacks on greed, it has warnings about hypocrisy, it has endorsements of slavery, it has passages that make modern religious conservatives uncomfortable and passages that make modern secular liberals uncomfortable. This is what real literature does. It doesn't sit there quietly and endorse your party platform. So if Texas students really read the Bible, not just cherry-pick passages wrapped in a political lesson, they may start asking dangerous questions like, why are the politicians who want us to read this so obsessed with controlling women's clothing? Or why are they more excited about posting the Ten Commandments than following the one about not bearing false witness? Or why do they say the love of money is bad, but every policy seems to be written by donors? Or why do they say they want religious freedom, but only one religion keeps getting VIP seating? That is the real risk. Not that Texas students will read the Bible, The risk is that they might read it carefully, and they might discover that the Bible is not a mascot. It's not a campaign prop. It's not a decorative weapon to hold up while yelling about wokeness. It's a library of ancient texts that serious people have wrestled with for centuries. Now Texas wants to hand it to 7th graders. Good luck, because 7th graders are ruthless. They'll find the weird parts. They'll ask about the wine. They'll ask about Pearls. They will ask what physical training is of some value means for gym class. They'll ask why adults keep pretending their political agenda is just classic literature. And honestly, that might be the best argument for the policy, not because it will turn every student into the kind of Christian Texas Republicans want, but because it might turn every student into the kind of reader politicians fear. A reader who notices loopholes, a reader who notices hypocrisy, a reader who asks, wait a minute, who picked these passages and why? So yeah, Texas, require Bible readings, but don't be cowards. Give them 1 Timothy, give them the modesty rules, the wine for your stomach advice, the very lukewarm fitness slogan, the leadership standards, and the warning about loving money too much. Then let students compare that to the adults running the state, because once kids start doing that, this whole Bible curriculum may backfire spectacularly. And for the first time in American history, the biggest threat to Christian nationalism may be students actually reading the Bible. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. Ultimize. Today on Ultimize Discover, you're getting a short practical sample from the Ultimize universe. Use this on its own, take one idea and apply it today, or go deeper at ultimize.com. Ultimize is the world's largest personal development podcast, audiobook, and online learning network. Ultimize. Most people think a crisis destroys reputations because of what actually happened. That's not necessarily true. Reputations are destroyed because of how a 10-second clip makes it look like something happened. That is the world you're living in right now. A single sentence taken out of context can spread faster than your full explanation ever will. A shaky phone video can define you before your team even knows there's a problem. And once that narrative starts moving, you're no longer in control of how you're perceived. This limited series podcast is about how to survive that reality. You're now entering Crisis Media Training for the Social Media and AI Era, produced by Ultimize, the world's largest personal development podcast network. I'm your host, TJ Walker. In this limited series, you're going to learn what to say in the first moments of a crisis. How to avoid statements that make you look guilty, how your words get clipped and weaponized, and how to communicate in a way that survives social media, viral outrage, and artificial intelligence. If you've ever wondered why smart, capable leaders lose everything in one interview and why others come out stronger, you're about to understand exactly why. And more important, you're going to know what to do If and when it's your turn. A crisis used to begin when the press showed up. Now it begins the moment something happens, often before you even know there's a problem. Someone records a video, an employee posts a comment, a customer shares a complaint. Within minutes, people are reacting, judging, and forming opinions, maybe forming lynch mobs. By the time you're thinking about what to say, the story is already moving without you. This is the biggest shift in crisis communications. You're no longer stepping into a conversation, you're stepping into a narrative that's already underway. That means you are behind from the very beginning. And if you treat this like an old-style crisis where you gather facts, draft a careful statement, wait for the right moment, run it by legal and the IR team, you're going to lose control of the story quickly because there is no perfect moment anymore. There's only the moment when the public starts paying attention. And that moment almost always comes before your first official response. Your job is no longer to just communicate. Your job is to catch up to a story that's already forming in real time. That changes how fast you move. It changes how simply you speak. And it changes what you must be prepared to do before a crisis ever happens. Most people still act like the crisis starts when they begin talking. It does not. It starts before you speak. He says most people try to say too much, way, way too much. They feel pressure to explain everything, to cover every possible angle, to respond to each possible concern. That instinct works against you because in a viral environment, people do not remember everything you say. They remember a few things, sometimes only one thing. This is why you need to limit your message, not because the situation is simple, but because attention is limited. The ability to remember is limited. I recommend a very clear rule: 3 messages, not more than 3. If you can't summarize your response into 3 core ideas, your message is going to get lost. You've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating. Let me show you what this looks like. Imagine you're dealing with a product issue. Your 3 messages might be, "We are aware of the issue. We're taking immediate action. Customer safety is our top priority." That's it. Everything else you say should support one of those 3 ideas. If you start adding more, you create confusion. You dilute your message and you increase the chance that something off topic becomes the clip that spreads. Here's another important point. Those 3 messages need to be consistent. If you say one thing in your first statement, something slightly different in your second, and something else in your third, people start to question your credibility. Doesn't mean everything has to be word for word the same. You don't want to sound like a robot, but thematically, you should be hitting 3 primary messages. Because if you don't, people think you're changing your story. Even if you're just trying to add detail. Consistency builds trust. Variation creates doubt. In a viral world, simplicity wins. Clarity wins. Repetition wins. And hey, I want you to win. You're not trying to say everything. This is not a court of law. Really got to drive that home. This is the court of public opinion. Very different rules apply. You're trying to make sure The most important things are remembered. And the easiest way to do that is to limit yourself to 3 main messages, something you can say in 30 seconds or less. By the way, quick question for you. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to consume content and how hard it is to actually do anything with it? I mean, you can listen to 100 episodes, read 10