"Secrets of successful achievers" 4 of 14

Secret #4: Can You Believe It?

When all other things are equal, this is the secret why one person makes millions and the other one can barely make a living.

It’s the power of belief!

It was a change in my beliefs that turned my life around. In 2001, I attended a seminar when I heard 13 magic words: “the size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.” I instantly knew that belief was the last piece of the puzzle and I created a plan and began a program to change my beliefs.

Within 90 days changes began occurring in my life. Within six months I achieved National recognition from the sales company I was with at the time. And within one year I was earning a five-figure income. All of it as a result of changing my beliefs.

Napoleon Hill said that faith was the most powerful force on earth (faith is belief without proof). Belief is nothing more than what we accept as true or real. Now here’s something important to understand: what we accept as true may not be true and it may not be real. But if we accept it as true or real it influences our decisions just as if it were.

From the days of the Greeks and the very first Olympics, it was debated whether a human being could run a sub-four minute mile. The medical community, the scientific community said that it was not possible. They said if a person ran a mile that fast, their heart would explode. So if you are an athlete out there in training and the medical community says if you break that barrier, your heart is going to explode, do you think that belief might affect your training?

For thousands of years it was a widely held belief that a sub-four minute mile was not only impossible, it was dangerous. Until a medical student named Roger Bannister came along in the 1950's. In England he was studying anatomy and physiology as part of his medical studies and in the process looked at the medical evidence that against a sub-four minute mile.

Evidence is so important when you're trying to change your beliefs. If you took all of your limiting beliefs and searched for the evidence to support them, you wouldn’t find any. For instance, take the limiting belief that “it takes money to make money.” If you studied the evidence you’d find that belief is false. There are simply too many examples of people who had little or no money who created a fortune

One of my limiting beliefs for many years was that my financial success was limited because I had dropped out of college before getting a degree. So let’s study the evidence of whether a college degree is required for financial success.

You wouldn’t have to look too far to find the evidence. The richest person in the world, Bill Gates, dropped out of college without a degree. So that belief is obviously false.

Our beliefs are just like the thermostat in your home. If you set the thermostat to 72 degrees and turn your air conditioner on, the thermostat will make sure that the temperature in your home never goes over 72 before it directs the air conditioner to begin working.

If you’ve been struggling with trying to increase your income but you just can’t seem to increase it by a significant amount, it’s probably because of your “belief thermostat.”

And the same applies for your performance in any area, whether it’s weight control or goal achievement of any kind.

Roger Bannister looked at the evidence and the evidence told him that not only would the heart not explode, but the body of a human being was more then capable of achieving that mark. He convinced himself from the evidence. He changed his belief from that of the held belief and then he actually went out and boldly told the world, "I am going to break the four minute barrier."

Everyone knows that in 1956, he went out and ran a mile in 3’59.4” and broke the record.

Now here's what a lot of people do not know. Within two weeks, another person broke the sub-four minute barrier. In the same year that he did, nine other people ran a mile under four minutes. In thousands of years of recorded history, no one had been able to run a four minute mile, and in one year, nine people did. What changed? The human body or the human belief?

It's rare that we will attempt to do something that we don't believe in, and we will never give 100% of our effort to something without a strong belief that we can do it. It's our human defense mechanism. In the classic book As A Man Thinketh, James Allen tells us, "The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do." In Above Life's Turmoil he tells us, "Belief always precedes action."

Now It’s Time To Take Action:

Set aside time when you can turn outside distractions off and get quiet inside. Write out the top 5-10 limiting beliefs you can identify that are holding you back. Things like:
“I don’t have enough time,”
”I always have such a hard time _______________ (fill in the blank),”
“I can’t ever seem to get ahead,”
are just a few examples of limiting beliefs.
Take each limiting belief you’ve written down and research and find the evidence that the belief is not true. That was one of the keys to Roger Bannister’s success and my own as well. I like to find examples of others who have my circumstances that have succeeded in spite of them.