Power of Positive Belief

If you can conceive it and believe it, you will achieve it.

The Power of Belief is by far the most powerful and creative force in the Universe. And the most potent thing we have going for us is the power of our positive beliefs. Belief in oneself is the most motivating power of all. If you don’t believe in you how can you expect anyone else to believe in you? Daily we demonstrate our belief in ourselves.

Wayne Dyer wrote in his book ‘You’ll See It When You Believe It’ “Work each day on your thoughts rather than concentrating on your behaviour. It’s your thinking that creates the feelings that you have and ultimately your actions as well.”

We know that the person with negative beliefs and attitudes thinks ‘I can’t’ and the person with positive beliefs and attitudes thinks ‘I can’. Henry Ford got it right when he said, “if you think you can you can; if you think you can’t you’re right”.

Positive belief can overcome almost any adversity. All through history and today, there have been exceptional people who overcame obstacles because of the power of their self belief.

Roger Bannister who ran the first sub-4 minute mile was faced with doomsayers who said it couldn’t be done. But he had a passion, he set this as a priority, he regularly practiced, his performance increased and he certainly had a purpose. As he was a medical doctor he knew there was nothing in the human physiology to stop someone running a sub 4 minute mile. He didn’t succeed immediately, but his belief in himself made him succeed. Of course, immediately the 4 minute mile barrier was broken, many other runners did it too.

So if you find yourself failing on a project, I have one thing to say to you: “Congratulations you're in good company.” Beethoven, Einstein, Edison, Colonel Sanders, Clint Eastwood and the Wright Brothers, all overcame early disappointment and scorn before achieving success. They strongly believed in themselves.

And of course they all employed the 5 Ps – Passion, Priorities, Practice, Performance and Purpose. They each had a passion for whatever they were striving for; they set this goal as a priority, they practiced (think of Tiger Wood, Edison, Carnegie), their performance (actions) showed their dedication and their purpose was clear.

Dr Norman Vincent Peale author of ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ lived to 95 and until the age of 93 he was giving more than 100 speeches a year. For 54 years he hosted a weekly radio programme and wrote 46 books. as a young man he had an enormous inferiority complex and his positive thinking philosophy grew from that.

In “The Secret” there is the story of Morris Goodman from Texas. On March 10 1983 he crashed his plane into the desert. He was flown by air ambulance to hospital where it was determined he would never move again. His internal organs were crushed and he was on life support. But a little voice in his head said he was going to walk out of the hospital by the end of the year and he made that commitment. And the same little voice kept saying breathe harder, breathe deeper. Soon he was taken off the ventilator and was breathing on his own. The medical staff was astounded. They couldn’t understand how this apparent miracle had happened. And the greatest part of this story is that he did walk out of the hospital on his own two legs at the end of the year.

In her book ‘Unstoppable’ Cynthia Kersey wrote about George Dantzig a college student who arrived late for class and missed the professor’s preamble to writing two maths problems on the board. He assumed this was the homework assignment. In fact they were two unsolvable equations that even Einstein hadn’t been able to answer. George worked on the ‘homework’ and after several days he had a breakthrough and delivered his ‘homework’ to the professor. He had solved two mathematical problems that had stumped mathematicians for thousands of years. George believed that he was working on his homework and that the problems were able to be solved and so he solved them.

Most of us can start to identify our passion when we take time to focus on what we really want. But sadly it is true that while many will identify this passion and set priorities, only a few will follow through and commit it to practice.

What is needed is a change of thinking and change of belief. We know that everything starts in our minds with our thoughts, so if we change our thoughts, we change our behaviours and so change our results.

One of the exercises I set for my clients is to ask them this question “If you had one year to live, what would you do and who would you choose to be with”. Try the exercise for yourself. You will be amazed at the results.