Be honest for a minute. When you look in the mirror, do you like the person you’ve become? If I asked you to describe yourself, would you have nice things to say? I find it incredibly sad that a lot of you don’t believe in yourself. And I find it even more upsetting that most of you aren’t doing what you love because you don’t have enough self-belief. So many of you seem to have lost your drive and will to succeed. You’ve given up on following your dreams, and in doing that you’ve given up on yourself.
Do you remember how you felt when you finished school? You probably believed that the world was your oyster and you were genuinely excited about your future. You wanted to live your best life and achieve great things. But more often than not, if you fast-forward to present day, you’ve settled for a mediocre job and a mediocre life. Why? Because you are terrified of failure. You see, the moment you experience your first dose of failure something changes in the wiring of your brain- either it forces you to try harder, or it makes you back down. Sadly, the latter is the case for most people.
Suddenly, the thought of pursuing your dream doesn’t seem realistic, and so you settle for a boring 9-5 job instead. You do the same thing day in and day out and never seem to find any satisfaction, any purpose, or any meaning. Until one day many years down the line. One day you’re going to be reminded of that dream you once had. The one thing that could have truly made you happy. But you stopped believing in yourself and now you’re living a life very different to the one you could have been living.
You remember how badly you wanted to achieve your dream, but now you’re bitter and jaded. Plus, now it’s surely too late? Well I’m here to remind you that dreams don’t have an expiry date. And if you have just a little bit of self-belief, the sky really would be your limit.
Negativity holds you back and keeps you from achieving the things that you are more than capable of achieving. The secret is an unshakeable belief in yourself and your abilities. Make a point of verbalising all of your positives and write down all of your success stories. Achieving a winning, positive attitude can be incredibly effective in your quest for success.
Set yourself a goal of doing something that scares you every month. This should be something that pushes you, motivates you, and challenges you.
Keep on pushing, and let go of the fear that’s holding you back! Some of the greatest leaders of our time have faced tremendous hurdles and obstacles, and yet they didn’t let these setbacks derail them from achieving what they had set out to do. As the late Nelson Mandela once said: “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” Madiba was imprisoned for 27 long years, but in all that time he never once lost sight of his dreams. And when he became the president of South Africa at the age of 77, he managed to unite an entire nation!
At the end of the day, winners never quit and quitters never win. And if you believe in yourself enough, then nothing can stop you from making things happen.
