“Belief is like a thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life.” ~ David J. Schwartz
In The Magic of Thinking Big, the author asks the million dollar question:
If you can dream it, why aren’t you doing it?
I ask myself that same question all the time. And I know I’m not the only one, because I know plenty of people who are not happy with where they are, and they are not doing anything about it. I don’t believe ALL of those people are completely devoid of dreams.
With so many people not living their dreams, you’d think the answer would be complicated and difficult to achieve. The truth is, the answer is quite simple!
The author explains it this way….
Your mind is a thought factory, which produces thousands of thoughts each day.
There are two foremen in charge of your factory.
Mr. Triumph is in charge of producing positive thoughts and reasons why you can do things, why you are qualified, and why you will succeed.
Mr. Defeat is in charge of negative thought production. He’s your expert on why you are weak, inadequate and unqualified, and why you can’t succeed.
To see how these two foremen work for you, try this:
Say to yourself, “It’s a lousy day.”
This thought immediately signals Mr. Defeat into action, and he produces reasons why you are right. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. Business looks bad today. Sales will drop. You don’t want to deal with people. You have a headache. Your spouse was in a bad mood this morning. Mr. Defeat is amazingly efficient. In just a few minutes he’s got you convinced it’s a really bad day.
Now say to yourself, “This is a fine day.”
This time Mr. Triumph is signaled into action. It’s a wonderful day. The weather is refreshing. It’s good to be alive. You can catch up on all your work today. It’s a pleasure to be doing business on a day like this. Before you know it, it IS a good day!
Mr. Defeat will tell you why you can’t land that account you’ve been wanting.
Mr. Triumph will tell you why you can.
Mr. Defeat will tell you why you don’t deserve a promotion and why you shouldn’t even bother to try for it.
Mr. Triumph will tell you why no one else on earth is more qualified for that job than you are.
Mr. Defeat will help you prepare a brilliant case against the guy you work with. He’ll show you why he’s impossible to be around, and how he makes your life miserable.
Mr. Triumph will show his positive qualities and help you find ways to make your association with him succeed.
The more you work with either of these foremen, the stronger they become, and the more space they take up in your mind.
If you give Mr. Defeat more work, and he’ll take up more and more of the space so that eventually your thought factory is producing nothing but negative thoughts.
But if you give Mr. Triumph the work, then your thought factory will produce the thoughts that will propel you toward success.
In fact, you can FIRE Mr. Defeat! You’ll discover you really don’t need him at all.
You can use Mr. Triumph 100% of the time, and produce only positive, productive thoughts.
The result of this kind of thought production is the most basic ingredient in personal success — self belief.
And how do we develop self belief? The author goes on to give us a plan of action…
DEVELOPING THE POWER OF SELF BELIEF
1. Think Success, Don’t Think Failure
Substitute success thinking for failure thinking.
When you face a difficult situation, think: “I’ll win!” not “I’ll probably lose.”
When you compete with someone else, think: “I’m equal to the best!” not “I’m outclassed.”
Let the master thought, “I will succeed!”, dominate your mind
2. Remind Yourself Frequently that You are Better than you Think You Are
Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never, never sell yourself short.
3. Believe Big
The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.
Think little goals and expect little achievements.
Think big goals and win big success!
Willena Flewelling
Success in 10 Steps
Phone 780-349-7163
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Very simple but strong point of view. I agree that we must believe in ourselves to be able to produce positive thoughts. It always starts at ourselves.
Mika Castro recently posted..mortgage singapore
This definitely goes hand in hand to be positive. If you are not positive, success is hard to come by. If you think ‘potential failure’ instead of ‘challenge’… you will fail.
I definitely dream big and make a lot of goals. I cannot see myself being happy at being stagnate with my life.
Thank you for sharing!
Nile recently posted..WordPress Pages Versus Posts, Which to Choose
Hey Willena,
I think what’s holding us back from taking action is the simple thought of failure.
Taking chances and willing to fail is part of the process of life.
It is inevitable however the one’s who doesn’t try would fail less of course
thanks for the share!
Akos
Akos Fintor recently posted..Lead Generation and Making Dough | Down to Business
I think this is an interesting way of thinking on how to produce positive thoughts. David schwartz is very inspiring regarding this.
Mika Castro recently posted..loans in singapore
Hi Wellena,
This is a very positive article summarizing David J. Schwartz book, “The Magic of Thinking Big.” I read his book in high school and after reading your article, I think it’s time to re-visit it again. He describes how our “thought factory” works. It takes practice to give more work to Mr. Triumph, but I have personally experienced how powerful we can be when we hire the right guy!
You made a statement, “Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do.” That is a powerful statement because I think sometimes we think successful people have something special, besides self belief, that we do not. That is not true at all! We are all ordinary folks. The difference is our perception of the world and whether we fill our minds with positive or negative thoughts!
You listed three major points of developing the power of self belief:
1. Think Success, Don’t Think Failure
2. Remind Yourself Frequently that You are Better Than You Think You Are
3. Believe Big
Excellent guidelines! Thanks for sharing this classic, fundamental mindset book.
Raena Lynn
Raena Lynn recently posted..The Power Of Words