Belief Determines Your Success
“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A Story of Belief
I think embarrassment was what I felt the most. Maybe that contributed to my situation, but at any rate, I still couldn’t lift the bar off the bench post. Everyone who stepped up to the bench press before me lifted this 175lbs easily. Here I was, struggling. I was struggling with the thoughts of failure in my head and balancing those thoughts with my want and will to succeed. Consequently, I was struggling with my manhood. Everyone was watching.
“Ron, let’s step away for a minute and talk.” The familiar sound of my trainers voice was like a beacon of light in the tunnel vision of my failure. I admired my trainer. He was tall, athletic with a sense of pride in his job that I found refreshing. He routinely outworked other trainers and had the energy of a 20-year-old which was impressive because he had just turned Fifty. I’ll put it in perspective. He took me to a charity event. The event was a 36 floor stair climb. He finished it in just over Five mins. The guy was a beast.
“You think you can’t lift this don’t you.” He said. I replied sarcastically, “I can’t. I just tried and failed.” I don’t know for sure, but I think he saw the look in my eyes. The look of pure and utter failure. “We’ll take some weight off and work our way back up and have you try it again.” I reluctantly agreed as he busied with the weights.
The tunnel vision was back. I may have left if I hadn’t already paid for the class and let’s face it, that would have meant even more embarrassment. The class focused on weight lifting after all. I lowered myself back down to the bench. I placed my hands on the bar my trainer now lowered to 135. I lifted it easily, just as I had expected.
The trainer cheered along with the rest of the class while I sat there thinking, “Wow, i must be some kind of charity case at this point.” As I looked around ready to go up in weight my trainer just continued clapping. At some point my tunnel vision subsided long enough for me to notice the weight on the bar. My trainer hadn’t taken off any weight at all.
“You don’t have a muscle problem, you have a thinking problem.” My trainer had a way of saying things simply and profoundly. It’s true. I thought myself out of the lift. How many times have I done this in my life? How many times did I quit before I even started? And not just in the weight room, in life, how many times have I done this? Too many times is the answer.
Over time and a lot of study I realized that belief is one of the most important ingredients to success. Besides action, it might be the most important. Because of that I’ve found a few things that work for me to increase my belief.
Affirmations
Affirmations. Some people like affirmations and some people don’t. I’m not talking about Stuart Smalley Affirmations, I’m talking about affirmations that you truly begin to feel in your nervous system. The way you assimilate affirmations into your belief system is through movement. Every morning I take a fast paced walk and repeat my affirmations while pounding my chest. I know it sounds weird, but it works. One of my affirmations is, “Every day in every way I feel stronger and stronger.” I say it out loud and take my fist and pound my chest after each statement. As I near the end of the walk I pound my chest on every word. The walks usually last around 15 mins. Try this for 30-days and let me know what you think. It may feel silly at first and you may not even believe what you're saying, but give it 30-days.
Goal Writing
I encourage you to start goal writing. Most people skip goal writing and as a result, many are twisting in the wind. There is something almost magical about writing out your goals, reading them daily and focusing intently on what you want. Brian Tracy has written what many believe to be the best book on goal writing. I’ll link it here. Not sold on goal setting, check this out.
Take Action
Take action immediately. Taking action will relieve your anxiety around the goals you’ve set out to achieve and it will also increase belief. Nothing kills belief like delayed action. The longer it takes you to start, the more room your mind has to work. Remember, our minds are built to keep us safe, and the unknown is anything but safe.
Self Development
I have many people in my own family who complain about their lives, but refuse to do anything about it. They laugh at my self-help books while they play candy crush on their smart phone. The fact of the matter is, nothing increases belief like learning something new. Always move forward and never look back.
Strengthen your belief, improve your life.