I tuned in to CNN last night and accidentally caught the beginning of their special CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. Even though I had other things to do, I was glued to my chair during the entire three hours.

The show, which took the format of a Hollywood awards show, honored people from around the world who have made a difference. These are normal, everyday people. Not stars, not rich people, but just regular people who saw that something needed to change and worked to change it.

We heard, for example, the story of a man who went to Africa in grief after his baby son had died. There he started up a school food program to feed hungry children who could barely sit through morning class without fainting onto the floor from lack of nutrients.

We heard of a poor woman in Cuba who developed a method of turning a toxic garbage dump into a garden, after the death of her daughter.

Monday I had the chance to see a special preview of an upcoming film that will be out later this year (I think). As part of the transformational film genre, it might be initially lumped in with The Secret, but it seems to be very different (at least to me). The Shift is about a global shift in consciousness happening on the planet right now, where people are banding together to change the world for the better.

From what I saw, The Shift looks to be inspirational, meaningful, and all about making a difference. So where The Secret was all about changing your own life, The Shift is about changing the planet.

I am excited to see this new film and I hope that it catches on as half as much as The Secret has. (And then finally people can start talking about something bigger and better than the Law of Attraction!)

I'll post any new information I have on the film as I hear about it.

I had an opportunity to see Michele Blood speak earlier in the week. She is the singing Australian self-help guru who has for years teamed up with Bob Proctor, one of the main guys on The Secret DVD. I enjoyed her talk, if just for the fact that she liked to throw the F-word in there a lot, and didn't seem to take herself too seriously.

What struck me was her comments on the issue of manifesting money. She mentioned briefly that sometimes she gets criticized for her focus on wealth. She said something along the lines of: "If you want to accomplish anything, you need the energy of money behind you, and so I don't apologize for that." (I am completely paraphrasing here.)

Hmm. Well, yes, I certainly would like more money, as it would make my life easier in many respects. But do we need to be wealthy in order to achieve anything?