Ya Gotta Believe

Ya Gotta Believe
By David Stoddard

It all comes down to this. The moment we have been waiting for. It’s time to separate the champs from the also-rans. All the practice and training has brought us to right here and right now. Success is within our grasp. We just have to take it one step at a time. Put everything we have into it and let the chips fall where they may. This is what it’s about.

And I don’t mean the upcoming Super Bowl.

There is truly one defining moment when it comes to who we are and what we can do. And that moment lasts a lifetime.

While it’s true there are other moments when our lives can be changed, such as an encouraging word from a teacher, a gentle yet firm nudge from a friend, or a swift kick in the tail from Dr. Phil, there is one thing that makes us keep going.

The deciding factor is what we believe about ourselves.

None of those people can be with us 24-7. Events that influenced us can not be relived as they happened. It all comes down to our having to do it on our own. So it’s important what we think of ourselves and what we can accomplish.

Or, paraphrasing Henry Ford for a moment, if you believe you are, or if you believe you are not, – you’re right.

Now it won’t just happen overnight. It takes time to change our habits. A lot of our personal characteristics we may not like about ourselves have been acquired over years. We did not all of a sudden become shy, or tired, bossy or nosey or cynical or resentful, or needy or lazy in the blink of an eye.

So it will take a while to change things. The first step is in believing that we can be different. Then, we should act as if we have already become the new person we want to become. We can begin to be more outgoing, do more activities so we are not so lazy and tired, look for the good in things to be less cynical, to take that first step of doing things on our own to be less needy.

Even if you don’t really “believe” 100% that you are something, pretend that you do believe it. What if you believed you were the most outgoing, people person?

What if you believed you didn’t care about everyone else’s business? What if you believed you didn’t get tired every day after work from “living for someone else?”

For myself, if I didn’t believe I was doing anyone any good by what I was writing, I couldn’t do it. If I didn’t believe I would become a columnist at some point in the future, I wouldn’t put myself through some of the frustrations of writer’s block. If I didn’t believe I could get up in front of people making a presentation, I wouldn’t have bought so many books on public speaking.

While it’s easy saying that all you need to do is believe, there is still a lot of work involved. But it will be the daily “acting job” you do on yourself that will bring about the changes in the future. Believing in something will help you push forward when it seems impossible. Seeing the goal (as if you already achieved it) will make it possible.

And if you want an easier way of looking at it… fake it til you make it.

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(c) David Stoddard - All Rights Reserved

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