Believe You Can Do It
There’s nothing more critical to achieving a goal than believing you can do it. Think about it — if you don’t believe you can do it, you probably won’t even take the first step. And you certainly won’t continue on if things get tough. So how do you convince yourself that something can be done?
Look around
Chances are that someone in the world has done the thing you are dreaming of — or at least something close to what you’re dreaming of.
People really do quit their jobs and start a small business. They take trips around the world. They attend college, buy houses, pay off huge amounts of debt, and all kinds of other things.
And if they can do it, you have absolute proof that it can be done. You can do it too, with determination and effort.
But what if you don’t have proof, yet?
Believe in impossible things
You’ve also got to know that the Queen had it right:
“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
– from Alice in Wonderland
Even if you think what you’d love to do is impossible, know that plenty of “impossible” things have happened. Dara Torres won Olympic medals in her 40s. People have walked around on the moon. I regularly get up early in the mornings. (OK, so maybe that last one isn’t on the same level…)
Practice makes possible
Maybe your initial goal seems too overwhelming (or impossible). Break it down into smaller parts. Maybe you can’t run a marathon today. But you CAN walk a mile. Or take a few steps. And you can build from there.
Practice does make possible. You’ve just got to find the courage to believe you can do it, and the strength to keep at it when things get tough (or when you get bored, tired, or sidetracked.) Keep coming back to your goal. Keep working away at it, and something inside you will change as your belief gets stronger and stronger.
So take your next step. Believe you can do it, and you will.
Your mental attitude is extremely important. If you do not believe you will succeed, you won’t.
Yup, as the saying goes, whether you believe you can or can’t, either way, you’re right.
LOVE the Alice in Wonderland quote :). And you’re absolutely right! Nothing can be accomplished if you don’t at first envision yourself doing it. But if you envision your goal and then set out small, achievable steps to make it happen then you can do it!
Exactly!
Old advice but always worth reading — how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time.
Nothing like breaking down big tasks into small parts to get them eaten. Er, done.
I’d say this is what helps me the most in job interviews. I have landed an offer in pretty much every interview I’ve had in which I truly felt I wanted the job and I think having this attitude helps.
Attitude sure makes a huge difference!
So true! I put off writing my ebook for a whole year because it seemed undoable…now I am in the final edits. :-) Just believe!
Awesome! I want to read :)
Visualisation is so important. The last and most important key step in my ‘get rich plan’ is to make sure that you know what your goals for and just go for them. You can’t hope to score unless you aim at the target!
Which means you’ve got to have that target firmly in mind :)
I think it’s definitely a skill to know what the final goal, project, outcome will be and know how to break it down into manageable steps.
I think even just starting with what your final goal is can help immensely. Then you can work backward from there to figure out the manageable steps.
What did the train say…I think I can, I think I can and he did! You have to believe in yourself before anybody else will. It’s all about the confidence you show in everything you do.
Even if you’re not completely confident, just sticking with it (and getting help if need be) can make all the difference.
What I find most helpful to getting things done is to set a goal. If there’s no goal set, I find myself not ending what I started. Everyone has some unfinished tasks that seem to drag on and never finish. This can be an article you didn’t finish or my favorite, the door on the attic that needs its final paint-job.
Oh yes, setting goals (and then making progress on them on a regular basis) is extremely helpful. And it’s funny you mention a door, we’ve got a door in the garage that is about 90% painted ;)