Your beliefs delineate your reality. A positive mental attitude is the foundation upon which to create a compelling reality. What you believe to be true about yourself and about life in general determines the actions you will take in various circumstances, and also the actions will you not take.
Your beliefs predetermine your outcomes simply because of what you will choose to do. Your beliefs will determine the possibilities you will consider for yourself in various situations. When things are not going well for you, a good place to start examining the situation is at the level of your beliefs. Ask yourself the following questions, “What are my beliefs about this situation?”, and “How can I adjust my beliefs to have a better outcome?” If you believe that you deserve to be successful, most likely you will become successful.
I had a friend who had many talents. He was a great speaker, he was funny, had the ability to learn very quickly, and was a good athlete. He could do all these things when there was no expectation placed upon him. When he was left alone, he felt relaxed and could recite great poems and deliver impromptu speeches. The moment anyone complemented him, or he felt he was being watched, he could not perform even the simplest task. He stammered, forgot the lines and instantly became a changed man. I could not understand this inconsistency. I decided to explore his past and help him discover the reasons behind his ineffective behavior. I discovered that when he was a child, his father always demanded perfection from him. When he came home with a mark lower than an “A”, he would be severely punished and called stupid”. In time, he developed extreme fear of his father and school in general. His marks deteriorated and his friends called him “stupid”. To compensate for his poor self-image, my friend took on the role of class clown. Throughout high school he performed poorly in all subjects, simply because he believed he was stupid. Whenever he knew he could do better, he stopped himself, to remain consistent with the belief he was a stupid person. He was not aware of how powerful his negative beliefs about himself were. When I confronted him with it, initially he was defensive and even angry. Only after a while, did he begin to realize that his negative self- image did not allow him to express his full potential. To help him change his beliefs about himself I conducted three NLP sessions with him, after which his life completely changed. My friend replaced his belief with a new one, that he was smart and able. All of a sudden, his business soared, his financial situation drastically improved, and he has found freedom in a new world of possibilities. I wonder how many negative beliefs may hold you back from achieving what you are truly capable of. What do you believe about yourself? What do you believe you deserve to have? What are your beliefs about money? If I held onto my family’s belief about financial rewards, I would have thirty years of waiting ahead of me. I wouldn’t have taken the steps I took to become financially independent.
Positive Mental Attitude
Mental Attitude
Let’s for a moment examine various beliefs surrounding a child’s poor performance in school, which you can easily translate into your level of success in your business.
When a child does poorly on the exam, the teacher could say, “It is not your fault. Either it was the noise in the room, or someone disturbed you”. Here, the student would not feel responsible for the poor performance.
The teacher could also say, “You did poorly in the test”. In this case, the teacher focused on a specific behavior, placing the responsibility on the student.
In another scenario, the teacher could say, “You are not very good at this material”. Obviously the implications of this belief would be different. If the student believes this message, he or she will most likely keep on doing poorly on the subsequent tests.
The most devastating statement would be, “You are just incapable of doing well”. If the student adopted this belief at a core level, this would have a devastating impact on this students’ performance on all the tests. The whole being of this student would be deeply affected by this belief. Also, a belief adopted at a core level is the most difficult one to change. People usually hold onto their beliefs and live their lives in a way that makes them consistent with the belief.
The same situation can be evaluated in many different ways, resulting in different outcomes. There are as many beliefs as there are people. We should choose beliefs that allow us to express our full potential. We run our own brains and have a choice what we want to keep in there.
Beliefs are convictions that certain things are true or real. They are also generalizations about the state of the world. Beliefs are the presuppositions that create or deny personal power for us. Your beliefs are on/off switches for our ability to take actions. If you don’t believe you can do something, you probably won’t have the opportunity to find out. Perhaps the most important belief is your belief about the beliefs. If you believe that you can choose and change your beliefs, you have personal power and are able to make massive changes in your reality. All successful people on the planet share one common characteristics – a positive mental attitude framed by the following power beliefs ( I call them power beliefs because once adopted, they transform lives):
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief # 1 – There are no failures, only lessons
Successful people do not believe in failure. Failure is not a part of their vocabulary. When things do not go the way they expected, they evaluate the situation, examine what worked and what didn’t, learn from the experience, redesign their strategy, and move on empowered by the lesson. Successful people always look for new ways to get better results.
Results are just reflections of strategies. We always get some sort of result. The quality of our results directly depends upon the quality of our strategies. The quality of a strategy has nothing to do with who we are. A lot of people make a critical mistake. They equate an undesirable result with personal inadequacy. They become a “failure”. But failure is just a label. Imagine a child learning to walk. If the child accepted the concept of failure, he or she would never attempt to take another step. The child would never learn to walk, discouraged by the fall, feeling incapable of learning.
This lesson applies to business. When things go well, learn from the experience and repeat the strategy that led you to success. When things do not go the way you want them to go, reevaluate your strategy and change the part that didn’t work. It’s that simple. I do this all the time. When I operate my business, I closely examine the language I use when talking to myself. I change this language to success syntax. I reject ineffective words that are just labels anyway. I reject “failure”, “inability”, “difficulty”, “problems”, “depression”, “sadness”, and the notion that something or someone did something to me. I am in charge, I am a learning machine, I am capable and powerful, I am in control and able to change my outcomes, I can change my feelings, I can change my beliefs, I can redesign my life. In other words, I CAN. CAN YOU?
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief #2 – Everything happens for a reason and the reason is to teach us something
Successful people always look for possibilities in every situation. They look at life as a series of lessons and opportunities to learn something new, even when they experience the most adverse situations. When I think of successful people, I often think of Terry Fox. Terry Fox was Canadian teenager, a great athlete with aspirations to study in a top US college, on a track scholarship. One day Terry was diagnosed with bone cancer. His left leg was amputated below the knee, his athletic career was over. Terry had every reason to give up. Instead, he turned his misfortune into an opportunity. He decided he would run across Canada raising funds for cancer research. When asked about his decision to undertake such a challenge, he said that his cancer gave him an opportunity to help other cancer sufferers. Terry’s journey began on the east coast. Because he had a prosthesis, his gait was awkward and his tempo slow. Even though he had only one leg, he ran a marathon distance every day. People began to cheer him on as he ran through all weather conditions, enduring huge physical pain. Terry did not finish his run. Half- way his cancer reappeared as lung cancer. Even though he didn’t complete the run, he raised millions of dollars for cancer research and became a hero and a face of hope to millions of people around the world. Since his death in 1980, every year millions of dollars are raised through “Terry Fox” races organized in every large Canadian city. The legacy of Terry Fox lives on. He is an example of a true winner.
Take a moment to examine your beliefs. Take a closer look at a particularly challenging situation in your life or your business. Yes! That one. You know which one it is. Is there anything positive in the situation? If the situation happened in the past, ask yourself, what was a good thing that came from this experience? I believe that all situations contain the seeds of opportunity. I once had a business partner who did not fulfill his end of a bargain. A significant amount of money was lost. At a time I was very angry and disappointed. In retrospect, I am satisfied. I learned something about reading people. I know I will never make the same mistake again, a great lesson when large amounts of money are involved. In the long term I am better off with this experience. Once you have decided to adopt a belief that every situation contains a seed of success, you will find out how easy it is for you to make positive changes in your life and in your business.
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief #3 – I attract everything that occurs in my life
This belief may be the hardest to accept. You may ask yourself, “How did I attract that accident, or a crash on the stock exchange, or any other misfortune I had no control over?”
Successful people are not immune to misfortunes. They simply place themselves in the center of the situation, taking a position that whatever happens they are in charge of changing the outcome. They refuse to accept a notion of helplessness. They refuse to passively accept the position that something or someone did anything to them. Even in the most adverse circumstances, they know they can control something and have a choice to take action to turn the situation to a positive outcome… I have read stories of concentration camp survivors. Most of them credit their survival to being able to maintain a positive outlook. Some said that amidst the horrors, they felt a sense of overwhelming peace and discovered true nobility in the human spirit. They spoke of acts of heroism on the part of their friends, acts of mercy, and opportunities to test their own strength under the most adverse circumstances. Following their liberation, many made successful careers. Successful people remain in full control. They take the position that they are the creators of their world and they can change their reality. They know they are in charge of their brains and in charge of their reality. It does not mean they are immune to pain. It means they take charge when challenges occur. As a result they have the strength to move on.
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief #4 – Work is fun – not WORK
Successful people love what they do. Though they spend a lot of time on their endeavors, they do not view work as a chore. They have fun doing what they do. Ask any great performer or a billionaire businessman what is the one critical component of their success. Every single time, they will tell you that they have fun doing what they do. They are happy to get up every morning and cannot wait to attend to their business. Some of them don’t want to take holidays because they enjoy their work so much. Successful people feel inspired by their work. They are continually upgrading themselves, learning new things about their business, trying new ways to do it better. They do not differentiate between their lives and their work. They view their work as their lives. Ask Donald Trump if he takes holidays, or when is he planning to retire? He would tell you that he never takes holidays because he loves his business, and he never plans to retire because his work is play for him. I love my business. I cannot wait to get up in the morning and start my day. Every day is a new, exhilarating challenge. I am always learning, asking questions, networking with people with common interests. This is the only way to truly succeed. When you equate your work with pleasure, you are guaranteed to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief #5 – Teamwork is the foundation of your power
Successful organizations value their people. They consider their people to be their greatest asset, the key to the organization’s success. They treat these people as success partners. Successful organizations invest in their team, bringing out the best in them. They train their teams and create opportunities for them to grow. I once read a book, “In Search of Excellence”, by Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman. They describe the key factors behind successful organizations. They have found that passionate attention to people was one of the most critical aspects of these organizations’ cultures. One such an organization is the Marriott hotel chain. Marriott’s top management values input from every single member of the “Marriott team”. The CEO visits the hotels’ kitchens, talks to cooks, bell people, chambermaids, everyone. At Christmas, the whole organization celebrates together, creating the spirit of cooperation and cohesion. When you have employees, treat them like equal team members. I guarantee, you will get many dividends from this approach.
Positive Mental Attitude Power Belief #6 – Commitment is the key to success
The most essential belief held by all successful people is that there is no success without commitment. Commitment comes from an unfaltering belief in the desired outcome. When I talk with some of the most successful people on this planet, they tell me that in their minds, the outcome they envision “is already a fact”, long before it is manifested in the physical world. They fill in the blanks between now and the goal that already exists. They create the reality long before it shows up. This takes us back to the vision board I described earlier.
Successful people share the “no matter what” positive mental attitude. No matter how hard it may be, no matter what challenges may occur, they persevere. Nothing comes between them and their dreams. They are totally committed to their results. One of my favorite stories to illustrate this point is that of Rudolf Nureyev. He was one of the most famous ballet dancers in modern history. Rudolf was born in Siberia, hardly a cultural center of the world. His family was uneducated and not appreciative of ballet, which they considered flimsy. Young Rudolf enrolled in the local school of dance and practiced intensely. One day he went to St. Petersburg to audition for a position in the world famous Kirov school of ballet. Despite his lack of superior training, he displayed a quality that caught the eye of the school director. Rudolf was admitted despite the school staff’s reservations, some said he would be out before the end of the first semester. Rudolf practiced day and night, and became a principal dancer of the company. His next dream was to escape Russian communism and live in a free country. One day, when the ballet company was boarding a plane in Paris, he run from the group, straight into the arms of the French police, exclaiming that he was defecting. Despite the political upheaval his escape created, Rudolf won his freedom. He became a ballet icon, a master studied by thousands of aspiring principal dancers around the world. He also became a symbol of freedom. He did whatever “it took”.
Because successful people equate their work with play, they find it easy to do “whatever it takes”. Enjoyment is the key to their positive mental attitude. I also love my work and adopted a “whatever it takes” positive mental attitude.
When I establish a goal, I ask myself if it is congruent with my vision. Both my vision and my goals must pass my “ecological test”. Is it good for me? Is it good for other people? Is it good for the world at large?” If a goal does not meet all these criteria, I discard it… In my view, whatever I do must be good for myself, for others and the world in general. I will never pursue a goal that is harmful for others. For example, I will never attempt to convince any client to do a business transaction I know may not be beneficial to him or her, even though I could benefit from it.
I believe I am capable of doing anything I want. I have a powerful vision, a set of clearly defined goals, and I have strategies and specific tactics to meet my goals.
Once I achieve a goal, I celebrate. Celebration is a powerful component of my life. When I celebrate I anchor good feelings to my outcome. I reward myself for work well done. Feeling great, I am motivated to pursue another goal, and another. I always have something I look forward to celebrating. Celebrate your successes, give yourself a good pat on the back, and feel great about yourself. This will make success taste even sweeter.
I am fully committed to having the best life I can create. Do you have the same commitment? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your dreams? What are you willing to do for your dreams? What are you not willing to do?
Take these thoughts are begin to start transforming your life. Enjoy!