First it was “A Million Little Pieces,” by James Frey. Now “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne, is the self-help book everyone is talking about.

I haven’t read it, or seen the movie, or listened to it on tape, but people say it’s basically about using mind over matter to get everything you want in life. Big secret. I’ve been promoting that, and practicing that, for years.

“How do you wear shorts in the winter without getting cold?”

That’s what people always ask when I stroll down the street sporting bun huggers in the middle of January. And honestly, instead of how, they should be asking, “why?” (It’s because I have unusually short legs for being a six-footer, and long pants apparently make me look dumpy, like I’m “walking around with a full diaper,” as one on-looker so descriptively pointed out once. So I brave cold weather in shorts as a matter of style and taste).

But the key to wearing shorts in the cold is no secret. It’s all about mental toughness – telling yourself to “suck it up.”