Before you can achieve, you must first believe. It’s an important message, but it’s not as simple as some would tell you, “All I have to do is believe and I can achieve anything I want.” Of course you’re not sure – you have doubts. I know exactly how you feel. I was a kid with asthma whose doctor said I should learn to play chess, and I couldn’t even play checkers all that well. Later on, as an entrepreneur, I learned one million four hundred seventy five thousand dollars worth of ways not to launch a product; and some of my investors told me it was time to stop embarrassing myself and go get a job. In order to I had to find my reason to believe.
The trick is separating the beliefs that help you from those that hinder you. And, taking action – relentless action – which is the direct result of your beliefs. You don’t lose twenty-five pounds in a day, and you may have failed to sustain relentless action in the past. The key is to recognize and focus on the beliefs that will help you accomplish the goal you’ve chosen. It’s easier said than done; but, every time I believed I couldn’t do something, I was right. But, it was only because I hadn’t taken action!
First, you recognize a reason to believe, and that will come from the small successes in your life. The power of a river isn’t created in an instant; it builds as it continues to flow. This makes a river unstoppable, and your ability to believe in yourself must do the same thing over time. It must keep flowing – and you must always believe in yourself. Like the river, as you continue to believe in yourself, you will be able to conquer all obstacles in your path. Every time I believed I could do something, I made progress in the direction of my course. Sometimes it didn’t feel like progress, as I only learned a few ways not to do something, but it was still progress because I didn’t give up believing I could do it!
Your beliefs power your actions or your inactions – depending on what you believe you can or can’t do. What you believe decides what you can or can’t do! “The key is all about instilling habits that help you succeed at the things you can control. You can’t control What others say, What others do, What others think, What others feel; but you can control how you will handle things you can’t control. You can control the course you take and most importantly, you can control your actions and your ability to believe.
Once you truly understand this, you will succeed at anything you decide to focus on. Trust me: If you follow this tenet, and never stop believing in yourself and your goals, you will become unstoppable at living your dreams.” It is so powerful, yet very simple: Start with small successes, build a reason to believe, and never stop believing. This will make anything possible.
One of my greatest joys is helping others go after their own goals. Recognize Your Reason to Believe. Remember the power of a river and how it succeeds. It doesn’t do it all at once. To achieve, you must believe, and believing comes from succeeding, and succeeding starts with small successes. Small successes grow to become bigger successes. The more you succeed, the more you will believe in yourself, and the more you believe, the more you’ll be unstoppable. Believing leads to achieving because it keeps you going when others give up. It’s like confidence fuel to power you through rough waters when the course gets tough.
Success comes from building habits that enable you to take the correct actions toward fulfilling your dream. I wasn’t the best student in school, nor was I the best athlete; heck I wasn’t even the best Navy SEAL. But I made it my goal to be the best at never giving up – at dreaming big and being personally accountable for making my dreams come true.
