Today I want to talk about your belief, in yourself. To start I want to read some beliefs or opinions that were written about a few well-known individuals and see if you can guess who they are?
-Poor build, Skinny, Lacks great physical stature and strength, Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush, Lacks a really strong arm, Can’t drive the ball downfield, Does not throw a really tight spiral, System-type player who can get exposed if forced to ad lib, Gets knocked down easily.
This as you probably know by now, is the opinion of Tom Brady before the 2000 NFL draft.
-A chief newspaper editor for the Kansas City Star fired a young animator stating that he “Simply lacked imagination and had no good ideas”
This young animator you know as Walt Disney.
-A young reporter for the evening news at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV was fired by a producer stating that she simply became “too emotionally involved in her stories” and was obviously “unfit for television”.
That reporter was Oprah Winfrey
-The head of A&R for Decca Records decided to pass on a young group of scruffy looking English musicians. His reason he stated- “Guitar groups are on the way out”
That scruffy looking band was none other than The Beatles.
The list of success stories just like these is much too long to share in one article, but I think you are starting to get the picture.
The only thing that these wildly successful people have in common is that some so-called expert decided that they simply weren’t good enough and had no belief in their ability to succeed. The correlation between these stories seems to be so strong, that in order to become successful in anything it appears that we first should seek out someone that will tell us we aren’t good enough, smart enough, or simply lack the talent and ability to achieve our ultimate goals.
Clearly, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, because there are just as many success stories we could share about individuals that chose to surround themselves with supportive, positive people that cheered them on and I certainly hope you are one of them. But for some reason it’s the one’s that defied the so-called experts that seem to capture our imagination.
My first thought is that no one likes to be told what they can or cannot do, I know I don’t. This perceived limitation and the need to prove people wrong must be the catalyst that ignites the warrior spirit of achievement. After all isn’t the deep seeded need to win and be first the driving factor in what truly makes people great at what they do? Yet is simply wanting to prove the naysayers wrong, and wanting to win were the most important criteria for massive success, why aren’t there more people achieving it?
This topic has fascinated me and I’ve studied it now for almost 20 years. What is it that makes these successful people truly exceptional? What do these people have that others with obvious talent and ability are lacking? What is the secret sauce that allows them to break through the wall of mediocrity? How do they achieve at the highest levels over and over again?
Other then being told they weren’t good enough and a huge desire to win, the thing I’ve found to be the common denominator with successful people is an unwavering belief in themselves. This above everything else seems to drive the mechanisms of achievement.
My question then is simple:
What do you believe about yourself? More importantly where have you allowed someone else’s limiting belief about you to become your reality?
Belief is what causes someone to keep working long after the others have called it a day. Belief will drive them to consistently practice the same skill over and over again until it’s as close to perfect as it can be. Belief provides the confidence to abandon everything they know and rebuild the process in a completely new way. And it’s this belief above everything else is what allow them to continue to push forward in the face of so-called experts telling them that they aren’t good enough.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves winning and those that are successful will tell you they love it too. Winning never gets old, but winning is the by-product. It’s the belief in yourself, and what you are committed to accomplishing that will allow you persevere in the face of adversity and in the glory of success.
Ask yourself this week:
What do you believe about yourself?
Where has someone said you weren’t good enough? How did you respond?
Are you willing to put your belief into action by working at it over and over again?
Success is not an accident and there is not such thing as an over-night success- You are playing in your own Super Bowl every single day- making sure you are playing with intention and purpose. After all if you don’t believe in yourself then why should anyone else?
Make and keep a commitment to yourself this week to start the process of believing you can accomplish at the highest levels in your business and in your life.
Looking forward to our next connection
Coach Tim
Quotes about Your Beliefs:
-There are only 7 days in a week, and someday isn’t one of them.- Unknown
-People do not become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. –Edmund Hillary
-Your competition isn’t other people. Your competition is your procrastination. Your ego. The unhealthy food you’re consuming. The knowledge you neglect. The negative behavior you’re nurturing and your lack of creativity. Compete against that. –Unknown
-Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up. –Carol Dweck
-Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shot; you get good breaks from bad shots- but you have to play the ball where it lies. –Bobby Jones
-The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important. – Bobby Knight
-You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.” –Morgan Wooten
-A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish their goals-Larry Bird
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