The formula for success: Conceive + Believe = Achieve
When you were created, you were endowed with a magnificent mind … capable of achieving almost anything you set your mind to.
But only a few people have truly understood the magnificence of the mind and its amazing power. Thomas Edison was one of them. As the most prolific inventor of all time, he knew, “If you did everything you were capable of doing, you would literally astonish yourself.”
Olympic gold medalists have also understood the amazing power of the mind. They know that their victories are 90% mental and only 10% physical.
So you were born to win. No doubt about it. You have all the proper equipment to make it happen.
Unfortunately as I mentioned in last week’s “Tuesday Tip,” you may have been conditioned to fail. That’s the bad news.
The good news is there’s a way to wipe out that old negative, failure conditioning. There’s a way to reprogram yourself for success.
Of course, the process takes a couple of hours to master. That’s why I teach the process in great detail in my “Journey to the Extraordinary” program. But once you master the process, you’ll have a tool you can use the rest of your life to transform your life, work, and relationships.
Let me give you the highlights to get you started.
=> 1. Realize you have the power to change.
That’s right. You can change WHO you are, WHAT you are, and WHERE you are by changing what goes into your mind. You can change … if you have the right skills … and if you apply those skills in the right fashion.
You need to be aware of the awesome gift you’ve been given. Of all the creatures on the Earth, only humans have the ability to change their internal programming and thereby change their future. Don’t dismiss or underestimate your awesome gift.
=> 2. Define your goals.
To re-program yourself for greater success, you’ve got to know what success means to you. What kinds of success do you want? And where do you want to see it?
You can start that process by defining your goals. Ask yourself, “What do you want to ADD to or SUBTRACT from your life?” Maybe you want to get better at certain activities, move up in your career, modify your behavior in particular situations, change a personality characteristic, or drop a bad habit. Make a list of all your desired goals.
=> 3. Write out your goals as affirmation statements.
Once you know your goals, once you know what you want, it’s critically important that you turn each one of them into an affirmation statement that you can tell yourself over and over again in the upcoming days and weeks.
Now I realize, to some of you, talking to yourself might feel a bit silly. But your feelings are basically irrelevant. What counts is what works. And affirmations work. As Dr. Denis Waitley stated in “The Psychology of Winning,” every WINNER he has ever met in every profession of life uses affirmations every single day.
So write out each goal as a separate affirmation. And write them using the following guidelines.
*Write out your affirmations using present-tense verbs.
Forget future-tense verbs like “I will lose 30 pounds” or “I will increase my sales by 25%.” They simply encourage procrastination rather than action. Write out your affirmations as if they are already true, writing such things as, “I AM filled with energy and vitality … I WEIGHT a slim, trip 150 pounds … or … I AM the top salesperson in my region.”
*Phrase your affirmations positively.
In other words, say what you want to achieve rather than what you are trying to avoid. Rather than tell yourself “I don’t lose my temper,” tell yourself, “I am cool and calm in difficult situations.” Whenever you put a negative word into your affirmation … a word like “can’t … don’t … won’t … not … or … never” … you slow down or even block your goal achievement.
*Make them personal.
Start each affirmation with the word “I” or “My” … such as “I maintain a positive attitude at all times” or “My energy level stays high throughout the day.” Just remember to keep each of your affirmations focused on YOURSELF and what YOU are doing. You can’t affirm, “My children will behave,” but you could affirm, “I take time to discipline my children.”
*Be specific.
The more specific your affirmations, the quicker you will reach your goals. It’s too vague to say, “I am earning more money.” Within limits, state exactly how much you want to earn. The mind does not relate to vague goals or wishy-washy hopes. If you want to weigh less, affirm a specific weight, such as “I am a slim, trim 155 pounds,” rather than say “I am thin.”
When you follow these guidelines, your goals become conceivable, and power enters your life. In his now-classic text, “Think And Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose and burning desire, can be translated into riches.”
Once you’ve written out your affirmations…
=> 4. Follow an embedding process.
It’s critical that you write out your affirmations, and it’s critical that you write them appropriately. But it’s just as critical that you use them in the right way. Follow this process.
*Say them often.
Once you’ve written your affirmations, you have to move them into your subconscious. You do that by repeating your affirmations over and over. And it doesn’t matter if you say them to yourself silently or out loud … or if you say them while relaxing, driving, or showering. But the research says you need to have 3 affirmation periods every day, during which you repeat each of your affirmations 4 or 5 times. You must be persistent and consistent in your use of affirmations, or they won’t work for you.
*Say them with feeling.
Even though you may not initially believe your affirmations will work, say them like you mean it. Better yet, put a feeling word into the affirmation itself. There’s more power in an affirmation that says, “I am eagerly preparing and calmly delivering presentations at work” than “I am preparing and delivering presentations at work.” Adding feeling words like “eagerly” and “calmly” makes a huge, motivating difference.
*Say them whenever a negative thought comes to mind.
It’s called displacement. If you begin to think “I can’t stand my job” and allow yourself to keep thinking that way, you’ll end up hating your job more and more. Instead of letting that happen to you, displace the negative thought with a positive affirmation, such as, “I am glad to have my job, and I handle it with ease and effectiveness.” When you do this with repetition, you eventually create a new way of thinking and performing.
*Picture your affirmations.
After you have verbalized each of your affirmations, take a few seconds to visualize each one of your affirmations as though they were already achieved. Just imagine each of them as having come true … because there is a strange but powerful force that works to create what you imagine. As Norman Vincent Peale noted in one of the best-selling books of all time, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” he said, “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.”
CONCLUDING THOUGHT
One of my “Tuesday Tip” subscribers, Yale Hirsh put it all together when he sent me this poem. He called it “POTENTIAL.” It says:
“Inside each of us are powers so STRONG… treasures so RICH… possibilities so ENDLESS… If I COMMAND them all to action, I could make a GIANT DIFFERENCE To millions of people in the WORLD.”
He’s so right. It doesn’t matter where you came from … or how difficult your past may have been … or how unfair your present situation might be … because you’re a human being.
Every other form of life on this planet is driven by instinct and genetic code. A sunflower has to follow the sun. Certain birds have to fly south in the winter. They simply cannot go any other direction. But as a human being, you can live one way for twenty-five years, and then tear up the script and live another way the next twenty-five years. And now you know the process for re-writing your script.