“If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re absolutely right.” Napoleon Hill
These words were written nearly 100 years ago by arguably the daddy of all personal development programmes available around the world today.
Their meanings were relevant then, and even more so today. We live and work at a much faster pace than 100 years ago and while technology makes life easier it also makes the pace faster. The rate of change and the increased intensity of competition mean that our state of mind is the most critical element each of us brings to our endeavours.
Living as we do up here in the north west of Europe we have to put up with a fairly negative culture. Generally speaking, there is a great deal of low self esteem and lots of self doubt. The moment we step out to take a hold of our careers and push on to do better and achieve more, we’re already a step ahead of most other people.
We gain a huge advantage by developing mental toughness through working on being positive and choosing to see our glass half full all the time.
At the end of the day, the person who wins in any walk of life is the one who thinks they can. Each of us has a constant inner dialogue. At the surface level, it is our moment to moment thinking and self talk. At a deeper level it is finding peace and calm to be able to communicate with the quiet inner voice and know what is true. To be frank most people never take the time to find the inner voice through the din of the ever present surface chatter.
For too many their awareness is dominated by negativity and self doubt. Even eventual winners may face moments of self doubt but they do have the inner strength, or indeed hear the inner voice, and they pick themselves up and stride forward. The truth is that most people just think they “can’t”, so the minority who do the inner work to ensure they remain positive and only engage in supportive self talk find their way to the top.
So make a commitment to steal 5 minutes twice a day, best times are around 10.30 in the morning and again 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Just take yourself somewhere quiet and private (this may even be the loo), sit up straight and focus on your breathing and just relax. Bring your mind to review the morning so far, acknowledging your progress and without beating yourself up just check on the quality of your inner self talk. Resolve to stay positive till lunchtime and beyond. Ideally, repeat this process at 3 o’clock.
Two things will happen. Firstly, by taking time out, you will experience the side effect of managing your stress. Secondly, by focusing on the positive, you enhance your expectation going forward.
I read that Wayne Rooney, said that during his recovery time from his injury in 2006 he never once thought to himself that he wouldn’t make it to the World Cup.
The best only think about what they want, so if you think you can, you will!