OK! I can see there is no fooling you lot, but did you know how Cinderella really found true happiness – and did you know that if you look at this magnificent story in a totally different light it ceases to be a fairy tale and turns into an inspirational positive thinking epic that we could all learn from – so if you are sitting comfortably – then I shall begin.

Just imagine for the moment that Cinderella could be anyone of us living in a comfortable home, no shortage of money, a tinge of sadness over the passing of a much loved mother, but more than compensated by an equally loving father. It almost sounds ideal but there is a sudden change coming.

Overnight bad people move in – the wicked step mother and two ugly sisters in the case of our fairy tale – but in our modern parable they could just as easily be scammers or con artists or other types of people who mean us harm.

They quickly take advantage of the father and when he dies poor Cinders is now at the mercy of the bad people who quickly ensure she has nothing but drudgery, servitude and little to look forward to – her life has suddenly changed due to causes totally outside of her control – and variations of this theme have happened and continue to happen to people across the planet every single day.

Don’t forget there will be a happy ending, but let’s concentrate for the moment on the best bit of all because this is what real positive thinking is really about. Cinders is now at rock bottom and no one would blame her if she bemoaned her fate and spread bitterness and hatred.

But Cinders will have none of this. She continues to speak kindly about her tormentors, there is no trace of anger and she looks for the silver lining even during the menial tasks she has to perform for her ungrateful step relatives. Most importantly she sees a better and brighter future for herself and imagines what it would be like to be free and with someone she loves. She refuses to be negative and the Universe is listening.

She mentally writes down her specification, the things she really wants to happen in her life, but does not keep dwelling on it and the Law of Attraction answers in the shape of her Fairy Godmother and provides the tools she needs to take her life forward.

Ok! We are talking here about a pumpkins, some lizards, mice etc. for Cinders, but in our 21^st century tale we would see it as a series of coincidences that begin to happen in our lives, each one a step up to fulfilling that big wish.

She’s now all dressed up and ready to go but real positive thinking needs action. As we all know Cinders makes quite an impact at that Ball – the Prince is smitten and come midnight she has completed everything that’s needed to land the big prize – she has delivered her wish.

Just to make sure, she does not keep dwelling on it in the cold light of day – after all she is back to reality. It’s been a wonderful night but its back to work and all that ingratitude. But she still remains excited even though she has forgotten her original specification. She has faith that it will be eventually delivered.

And sure enough one of those coincidences comes up trumps yet again with a carelessly discarded glass slipper. We all know the rest of the story from this point on but what a great analogy for the 21^st century.

Here we have a woman at rock bottom who had faith that positive thinking would really work for her. She displayed no trace of bitterness or hatred – two key emotions guaranteed to prevent positive thinking from working. She even went further by forgiving her tormentors.

Throughout all this hardship she never lost sight of what she really wanted to happen to help improve her life and even at the most difficult times when she thought she would never go to the ball, she kept the faith that good things would happen.

But this is just a fairy story isn’t it? You might think that but just look around for a minute and all those characters from literature are as large as life and affecting you – they just have different names, but that does not mean that you cannot live happily ever after.

Start by making that wish and keep the faith.