There is no surer guarantee of personal or business success than the
power of belief. But belief is not something that happens to you. It is a
conscious choice you make and, when combined with knowledge of what you
do best, it gives you unshakeable confidence and profound focus.
One
of the key character traits of entrepreneurs is the power of belief
grown from self-knowledge and the ability to understand the world of the
problems they seek to solve. Entrepreneurs are no less risk-averse than
anybody else. The difference is they choose their responses to the
uncertainty of launching a new venture.
We all suffer crises of
self-doubt. What the power of belief does for you is enable you to see
that self-doubt is the state of being in unreality. The power of belief
gives you the perspective you need to observe and accept the
undependable future and so avoid getting lost when self-doubt rears its
ugly head.
Cultivating the Power of Belief
The power
of belief is not a blind choice. It's a choice informed through careful
self-examination and assessment of what you do best. Granted, we are
infused with beliefs of many kinds during our formative years. Yet as
fully realized adults we have the opportunity to decide what we believe
and in so doing be fed by the power of conscious choosing.
All
factors being equal, successful human beings define for themselves what
being successful means. They have the power to believe in their ability
to handle whatever comes.
Ask yourself today what success means
for you. Write about it. How does what you believe about success affect
how you live, what you do, who you choose to work with?
What You Believe and What You Do Best
A
recent study by the SBA Office of Advocacy reports that successful
entrepreneurs have the ability to assess the problem opportunity in the
marketplace and understand how that translates to potential demand. But
what's significant about their legendary risk-seeking behavior is that
it is driven by their unwavering belief in what they are trying to
accomplish. It is the power of belief that, for them, minimizes the risk
in any endeavor.
Thomas Alva Edison was a tireless investigator.
He had a broad background in applied science and he persevered even in
the face of apparent setbacks. He had a strong, conscious belief in
himself that enabled him to weather what others would consider to be
career-ending failures. The point of his life was to follow a course
until he found success. Not until he hit a stumbling block. Not until
failure stopped him. He followed every idea through until it evolved
into a solution that worked for real-world problems.
You can never
be sure of results. The only sure thing is your power to choose. Making
conscious choices means believing you can exert the effort required to
succeed in a given venture. It is imperative for your success that you
trust the creative process and be open to the possibility in every
apparent misstep or supposed failure.
Taking the power of belief
and aiming it through the knowledge of what you do best focuses you
naturally on those problems you are best equipped to solve.
Take
the steps today to get clear about what you believe and what you do
best. Then use the power of belief combined with what you do best to
focus yourself on the success you deserve.
