Declaring your dreams and aspirations open and aloud, as well as regularly sharing your dreams with others, is a powerful way to provide yourself with the strength, capacity and emotional fortitude to actually achieve them.

The power of declaring your dreams is not rooted in universal conspiracy, a deeply profound “Secret” or in the Law of Attraction — it’s grounded in simple logic.

Subscribers to the Law of Attraction constantly harp upon the merit and value of declaring one’s goals and desires, claiming that the act of declaring them routinely enough will cause the Universe to conspire in one’s favor and manifest what one wants. This would be great, if it were only so simple.

My biggest qualm with the Law of Attraction and books like The Secret is that any merit in their message regarding what is required in order to make one’s goals a reality is the degree of exaggerated magic and whimsy that have become inseparably intertwined with them.

The “sounds too good to be true” factor of philosophies like The Secret is more likely to turn people off to exploring the “under the surface” merit of things like the Law of Attraction than it is to inspire ordinary men and women to fully pursue their dreams until their final achievement. What it takes to achieve one’s dreams is not magic at all — it’s grounded in simple logic.

Law of Attraction hocus-pocus does a severe disservice to what manifesting one’s goals and dreams truly requires: vision, constant learning and innovation, confidence, networking, endurance and longevity, and positivity and optimism.

1. Vision (or Strategic Planning)

Vision is the foresight of one’s strategy that one employs to attain her goals and make her visions a reality. Declaring one’s dreams serves as a reminder to one’s self and helps keep one’s vision in sight. While one’s vision should have a steadfast focus on the goal that one is attempting to achieve, the strategy by which one attempts to attain the goal must be fluid and open to change and innovation.

2. Constant Learning and Innovation

Seriously pursuing your dreams is a process of constant learning. You must become as close to an expert in the field you are attempting to break into or thoroughly and continually improve your craft in order to stay ahead of the curve. Constant learning opens your vision to innovation and improvement.

3. Confidence

If you are not confident in yourself, who will be? Confidence is vital in the process of achieving your dreams. In declaring them aloud and routinely discussing them with others, you are affirming and reaffirming confidence in yourself and your ability to achieve your dreams.

4. Networking

Declaring intent affirms your confidence in your journey and pursuit of them, but it also makes others believe in it too. Networking is a vital component to achieving one’s dreams because the more people you meet and connect with, the more likely they become willing to help and assist, network and advise. this would never be possible if you did not routinely and confidently assert your dreams and goals to others.

5. Endurance and Longevity

Achieving lofty goals requires mental and emotional endurance and longevity. It goes without saying that putting your biggest hopes and aspirations on the line can require major risk. The risk of failure is a constant worry and a heavy burden. But declaring your dreams naturally makes you more focused on seeing them through to achievement. When you regularly discuss your goals and aspirations to friends and family, you give yourself a constant and renewing source of energy and effort to see them through to completion.

6. Positivity and Optimism

Above all else, the power of declaring what you intend to achieve heavily depends upon your own positive attitude and optimistic spirit. When it comes to dreaming, you are your last line of defense — if you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t believe you can obtain your goals and achieve what you desire, there will be few others who will.

Truly, the power of declaring your goals and aspirations is benefiting from the wide array positive emotions and thought-processes that will undoubtedly help you achieve them. To make your intent a reality, you must provide yourself with the strength, capacity and emotional fortitude that is required to see them through. The simple benefit that comes from declaring one’s dreams is something upon which Law of Attraction fanatics neglect to focus and instead try to overcompensate with hocus-pocus.