Picture in your mind someone who has already achieved one or more of the big goals or distant dreams you have.
This should be a real person.
In the pursuit of any ambition, there are countless others—dozens, maybe even millions—who have succeeded before us.
And they leave behind clues.
“Well, of course,” you might say. “If I want to build a barn, I need to learn from someone who’s done it before.” Or, “To become an accountant, I have to go to school.”
It’s “common sense.” But when it comes to long-held dreams, common sense isn’t so common.
Think of a big dream you have. Come on, you have one…
Losing weight and getting healthy. Building a thriving business. Coaching your team to a championship season. Inspiring a love of math, reading, or science in your students.
Have you carried this dream for years—maybe even decades—without making real progress?
Why do you think that is?
Are you lazy? Unintelligent? Maybe—but probably not.
The real reason most people struggle with self-discipline and fail to achieve their dreams is that they don’t share the core beliefs of those who have succeeded in the same area.
Take smoking, for example. Smokers often believe they won’t suffer the consequences, that cigarettes taste good, or that they need nicotine to manage stress. These are deeply ingrained beliefs—often numbering in the hundreds. On the other hand, lifelong non-smokers hold the opposite convictions to their very core.
The same is true for successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and leaders. They possess thousands of beliefs that differ from those who have never tried or have repeatedly failed.
Yet, most people never consider this.
Instead, they blame fate or a lack of knowledge for their failures. They wonder, “How could my beliefs be holding me back?”
But give me anyone who has just failed at achieving a significant goal—something that could have dramatically improved their life—and I guarantee their underlying beliefs played a major role in that failure.
This is why “how-to” programs fail more than 95% of the time.
Want a funny example? Okay.
How many awful websites have you seen, despite there being dozens of excellent books on web design and e-commerce?
See? Information alone isn’t enough.
What truly matters is developing the mindset that fuels discipline and drive. When you have that, even if you don’t know exactly what to do, you’ll go out, learn it, and succeed.
If you’ve been in your field for 20 years and a newcomer with just two years of experience races past you, it’s not their talent—it’s their beliefs. Your beliefs shape your attitudes, dictate your emotions, and directly control your actions.
If you procrastinate, produce mediocre work, or struggle in certain areas of your life, take a hard look at your core assumptions.
A 30-Second Exercise to Experience the Power of Belief
Pick an area of life where you’re struggling—health, habits, relationships, career, finances, sports, school—you name it.
Now, grab a pen and ask yourself:
- Have I mapped out exactly what I need to do to reach my goal?
- Am I absolutely confident I will achieve it?
- When I make a mistake, do I quickly recover, or do I let it derail me?
- Do I truly believe I deserve success, even though millions of equally deserving people fail?
- Do I think external factors will ultimately decide whether I succeed?
- If achieving my goal takes months or even years, am I okay with that?
- Do I find it difficult to follow through on what I know are the right choices?
Now, picture the most successful person you know in that area.
Look at those questions again.
How do you imagine they would answer?
The difference is night and day, isn’t it?
This is how false, limiting beliefs hold you back.
Because belief is such a foundational issue, we focus on it first whenever we create a new Think Right Now! behavior modification program.
Of course, past experiences contribute to limiting beliefs. But trauma alone doesn’t explain lifelong failure—many people use their struggles as fuel to achieve great success and happiness.
It’s not what happens to us that determines our future—it’s what we believe about what happens.
If you’re interested in learning more about belief systems, there are many excellent books on the subject. It’s a fascinating and valuable area of study.
Today’s Winning Beliefs
- I absolutely believe I can achieve my biggest goals.
- I am just as deserving of success as anyone else.
- I control my actions and my destiny.
- Making the right decisions comes easily to me now.
- The answers I need come to me effortlessly.
- I can handle any situation that comes my way.