the success principles – principle 5 – believe in yourself

if you haven’t read the other principles, i suggest you start with the first: the success principles – 1st principle – take 100% responsibility

If you are going to be successful in creating the life of your dreams, you have to believe in yourself, that you are capable of making it happen. Whatever you call it, self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-assurance, you need to have a deep belief that you can achieve what you want.

Believing in yourself is an attitude, which means it your choice. this is a habit you can build over time. you must choose to believe you can do anything you set your mind to do, and this is confirmed by latest scientific research. With positive self-talk, positive visualization and the proper efforts, you can learn to do almost anything. If you really believe it is possible and act as if, then you will do that is necessary to bring the results. The other thing needed is you need to know why you’re doing it.

The choice of what to believe is up to you as the story of Victor Serebriakoff shows, he used to believe his school teachers and thought he was dumb, dropped out of school and move from manual work to manual work until he enrolled in the army and took an IQ test who revealed he was a genius, he then decided to believe these results and became a very successful author, business man and later became international president of mensa (a society for people with very high IQ). He was always intelligent but didn’t believe it until he got the results of the IQ test…

You have to give up I can’t

As Henri Ford said: “I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.”

The words “I can’t” (and similar ones: I wish I were able to…) are weakening you. Whereas your brain is designed to solve any problem you give it, the worlds you think and say actually affect your body and therefore your capacity to do what is needed. Take responsibility and remove ‘I can’t’ from your vocabulary, and the sooner the better.

Don’t waste years believing you can’t, take the story of Catherine Lanigan for example, she believed for years a teacher who told her she writes very badly and should quit for 14 years, until finally she gave it a try and wrote about 30 best-sellers.

It’s never too late, stop making excuses, it’s never too late to start, as the ancient Chinese proverb says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. the second best time is now.” there are plenty of stories to illustrate that, check Grandma Moses for example, she started painting when she was 78 years old, though some of her paintings have sold for more than 1 Million USD years later.

Also you’re never too young to start, don’t worry about not having enough experience or being too young, you will learn by doing. There are many stories of people being successful at a very young age (as artists, businessman, philanthropist…)

Don’t assume you need a college degree, 20% of America’s millionaires never set foot in College, just think about Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates.

What others think about you is none of your business, forget about what the others want to you to do or achieve, do what you need to attain your goals. As Dr. Daniel Amen’s put it in his 18/40/60 rule, when you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you, when you’re 40, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you, when you’re 60, you realize nobody’s thinking about you at all. So keep focusing on what you want, believe in yourself and take actions now.