Why is something so simple so hard to do every day? Believing in yourself, your family, your life and certainly your business should be the easiest thing we do, but it’s not. I’m not talking about a religious belief, but a self belief. Let’s explore why it’s so hard to just believe, when we all have to believe everyday.
Everything starts in our thoughts. Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world at the time, taught Napoleon Hill this philosophy and inspired the book “Think and Grow Rich”. It really doesn’t matter how we do things as much as it is having positive thoughts and beliefs about what we are doing. This is why belief is so hard. You really have to stay positive all day every day. Psychologists have released studies that the average person is subjected to negative information 87% of the time which means our positive thoughts have to come from 13% of our information. Therefore, the average person is probably pretty negative. Politics are certainly negative especially at election time. The news is negative with wars, shootings, bad economies, foreclosures and bankruptcies. It is downright depressing. One must really focus on reading positive books, listening to positive recordings, listening to inspirational music and associating with positive people.
Take the African Elephant, a very smart animal. When they are small they are chained with a shackle on their rear leg to a steel post in a few feet of concrete. The little elephant pulls and pulls to free itself for weeks and months until he finally gives up. The elephant believes he is trapped no matter what he does. Notice when you go to a circus the adult elephants are chained with the same shackle and chain to a wooden stack only about a foot in the ground. The powerful adult elephant could easily pull up the stake and escape. However, his belief is that no matter what he does, he can’t escape, so he doesn’t even try. That training is in his belief. Some people are “trained” to believe they can’t succeed even though if their belief changed their success would also change.
Simply put our thoughts start to become our words. Change your words from “I Can’t” to” I Can or I Must”. When you change your words suddenly you change your actions. When you start with positive actions then you start to have a positive belief. Once you have a positive belief then your reality becomes positive. Your luck will actually change because now you have an expectation of good things not a “what else could go wrong” expectation. If you believe that way you are actually attracting more bad things to you. As Henry Ford once was quoted “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Think positive thoughts and live a positive successful life!
“Success comes to those who become success conscious. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious”.—Napoleon Hill
Image courtesy of Photography by BJWOK at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.
Thanks Tim.
That was a great refresher for me. As people thinks in their heart so they are.
Thank you Roy, I really appreciate your feedback.
Great inspiration Tim.
Love that!
Perfect timing for this reminder!
Tim, this is an awesome column. Wrote a longish response when you first posted it, and lost it…there is a ton of truth here, and it is a great reminder to focus on the positive.