You Must Believe It Before You Can See It

You Must Believe It Before You Can See It

I want you to believe something to the core of your being. Humans lead with belief.

Once you understand that the belief has to come first, then you’ll know what it is that you have to work on because most people think they need to do something extraordinary in order to believe in themselves. But I’m telling you right now, if you don’t believe in yourself first, you will never accomplish something great.

For all of human history, the four-minute mile stood as an impossible to break barrier, and people believed in it. They actually believed it was humanly impossible to do it. And so it was never broken, no matter how many times people tried. Pundits, everybody said your heart will explode, there’s no way that the human body can do that.

But one guy, Roger Bannister, believed that it was possible. And even though he had no reason to believe that, he was able to train, and train, and train, until he finally broke the four-minute mile. The only person to do it because he was the only person that believed that it could be done.

And that’s it. Once you understand that, once you know that first you have to cultivate the belief, then you’re going to put your energy into the area that makes sense. Actually learning to believe in yourself.

And I don’t need you to believe that you’re extraordinary, I don’t even need you to believe that you’re capable of the four-minute mile, the reality was Roger Bannister wasn’t capable of the four-minute mile, and that’s why he had to train. But he had to believe that his energies would be rewarded before it made any sense to go out and do it.

And then it’s literally shocking how much your mind will hold you back if you think you can’t do something. Guess what? You’re right. You can’t do it. But if you allow yourself to believe that you can work your way to it, if you allow yourself to believe that simply by being human, you’re the ultimate adaptation machine, and you can make a demand of yourself to grow and get better.

Then, all of a sudden, you realize that your energies are going to be rewarded and you will put the energy in. And it’s the people who dared to believe, it’s the people who allow themselves to believe that, it’s the people who cultivate that belief fiendishly. More than they think about anything else, they think about how capable they are.

They imagine themselves doing it, they visualize, they think about it. They obsess over it. And when they do that, they’re putting in the energy to actually get better, they’re taking the steps, they’re doing the things they need to do to get great.

And that’s where greatness is born. It is born out of that belief, that putting in the time and energy, doing the hard things, persevering and pushing through, that that all is going to be rewarded with success. But first, you have to believe. First, you have to believe. So put your time and energy there. If you don’t think you’re capable of something, I’m telling you right now, the only thing you have to work on is belief. Because once you have that, nothing can stop you.