If you are going to be successful in creating the life of your dreams, you have to believe that you are capable of making it happen.
Believing in yourself is an attitude
Believing in yourself is a choice. It is an attitude you develop over time. Remember, the past is the past. There is no payoff for blaming them for your current level of self-confidence. It’s now your responsibility to take charge of your own self-concept and your beliefs. You must choose to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to–anything at all–because, in fact, you can.
If you assume in favor of yourself and act as if it is possible, then you will do the things that are necessary to bring about the result. If you believe it is impossible, you will not do what is necessary, and you will not produce the result. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Napoleon Hill once said, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” In fact, the mind is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver to you literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible.
Humans respond to what the brain, on the basis of previous experience, expects to happen next. This is why it’s so important to hold positive expectations in your mind. When you replace your old negative expectations with more positive ones — when you begin to believe that what you want is possible — your brain will actually take over the job of accomplishing that possibility for you. Better than that, your brain will actually expect to achieve that outcome.
Once you have decided why you are here, you have to decide what you want to do, be, and have. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to experience? And what possessions do you want to acquire? In the journey from where you are to where you want to be, you have to decide where you want to be. In other words, what does success look like to you?
Clarify your vision of your ideal life
Your vision is a detailed description of where you want to go to. It describes in detail what your destination looks like and feels like. To create a balanced and successful life, your vision needs to include the following seven areas: work and career, finances, recreation and free time, health and fitness, relationships, personal goals, and contribution to the larger community.
Each of us is born with a life purpose. With a purpose, everything in life seems to fall into place. To be “on purpose” means you’re doing what you love to do, doing what you’re good at and accomplishing what’s important to you. When you truly are on purpose, the people, resources, and opportunities you need naturally gravitate toward you. The world benefits, too, because when you act in alignment with your true life purpose, all of your actions automatically serve others.
Your inner guidance system is your joy
You were born with an inner guidance system that tells you when you are on or off purpose by the amount of joy you are experiencing. The things that bring you the greatest joy are in alignment with your purpose.
There is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live.
That person is YOU.
If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life. This includes the level of your achievements, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships, the state of your health and physical fitness, your income, your debts, your feelings — everything!
You have to take the position that you have always had the power to make it different, to get it right, to produce the desired result.
Event + Response = Outcome
Every outcome you experience in life (whether it is success or failure, wealth or poverty, health or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event or events in your life.
To reach your potential you must grow. And to grow, you must be highly intentional about it. This book is to help you learn how to grow and develop yourself so you have the best chance of becoming the person you were created to be. John C. Maxwell’s desire is to help you develop the right attitude, learn more about your strengths, tap into your passion, become more in touch with your purpose, and develop your skills so you can be all you can be.
Introduction
To discover your purpose, you need to grow in self-awareness. To become a better human being, you need to grow in character. To advance in your career, you need to grow in your skills. To be a better spouse or parent, you need to grow in relationships. To reach your financial goals, you need to grow in your knowledge about how money works. To enrich your soul, you need to grow spiritually. The specifics of growth change from person to person, but the principles are the same for every person. This book offers laws that will teach you how to approach the worthy goal of growing. It is a key that unlocks the door. You will have to put in the work to actually grow.
