Who says you can't !

There is an old mystic saying that “belief begets reality”, and although this is probably not exactly true when discussing ways in which to improve yourself, it does form the basis of a concept for ensuring you succeed in your endeavours more frequently.

For the purpose of this post, I am going to re-write this phrase a little and make it “doubt begets failure”, as this makes more sense in the context I intend it. Basically, what I am proposing is that many people fail in their personal and professional life because they doubt themselves. History has proven to us that individuals who believe in their own success 100% of the time, with no room for doubt, do indeed succeed against all odds with alarming regularity. Why is this? Simply because they were 100% sure they would succeed, they did not doubt it in any way, so if they were 100% sure of success, the prospect of failure was 0%, they could not fail to succeed. In effect they created their own reality.

Doubt has a way of creeping in, allowing people to find easy excuses for their failures, it has been argued that as little as 10% doubt will cut the percentage chance of success of a project to as low as 30%. This is due to many reasons, firstly because people dislike failure, it is an uncomfortable experience to go through, by finding one external factor that allows them to doubt their own success whilst attributing blame elsewhere, they have provided themselves with a safety net should their plans fail. So how can you minimise your doubts and maintain 100% belief of your own success? Try this few simple tips.

When considering risks to a current project or in achieving a current goal, never allow anything to become a negative. If you discover a cause that could lead to a non-success situation, solve the problem here and now, once it is solved it is no longer a reason for doubt.
Plan first, execute second, make sure your goals are defined before you start upon a course of action designed to achieve them. Unless you have clearly decided what is to be judged a successful result, you will never achieve one! Set your goal and work towards it.
If your goal or project is large, consider breaking it down into sub-goals, each of which will be a success in its own right. Each minor success will be a positive point along the path to ultimate success, instead of a barrier to your passage.
Be the judge of your own success, do not weigh your results against other people, or try to have them encourage or support you, doing so opens you up wide to their doubts. Set your own goals, and congratulate yourself on your success as you achieve them.
Ultimately it’s all a playoff, it is very difficult to maintain 100% belief in the success of a project or in achieving a certain goal, but by understanding that doubt is negative, and in many cases easily overcome, you can be assured that you are making your best effort in achieving success.