Your “belief” that you can do something is NOT necessary for you to actually succeed.

The idea started with Napoleon Hill’s 1937 book “Think and Grow Rich”: “Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.”

Catchy. Rhymes.

And… bull.

Your belief that you can succeed in something is NOT a requirement to success.

Surprise you!? Read it again: Your belief that you can succeed in something is NOT a requirement to success. Restated, you can succeed in something EVEN if you believe you can’t.

Perceptions are OFTEN wrong. The girl or guy we thought was into us wasn’t, our “million-dollar” idea never sold a dime. Our certainty that we’d ace the test result in a “C” grade.

But the opposite is just as true: “I could never… [fill in the blank]” is completely unrelated to whether you could actually succeed.

And it’s that secret that you can leverage to your benefit:

Success is not a factor of belief. It is only a factor of MECHANICS: even if YOU are convinced that you could never have $10,000 in the bank… if you set up an automated savings account that automatically deposits $100 of your paycheck in a savings account each week, in a little more than 2 years you’ll have $10,000 in the bank whether you believed yourself capable of having $10,000 in the bank or not.

Your perceptions that you can or can’t doesn’t reflect the reality of your abilities. More so, you can leverage this secret to your benefit even you YOU don’t think you can…

…get the girl
…build a billion dollar business
…obtain a PhD
…lose 100 pounds
…run a marathon
…survive in a new city

IF you take the action that success in any of those goals requires, you’ll succeed no matter your belief.

The lesson, if you want success, is:

• Between saying empty affirmations or trying to convince yourself… just take action
• Be willing to test perceived certainties. Don’t assume that, just because you believe it, it’s true.
• In fact… if you really think you can’t, well then, you’ve got nothing to lose by trying, do you!?
• Choose to take persistent, consistent, creative action in the direction of your goal.
• Do not give up unless and until you either 1) know you’re moving in the wrong direction to obtain your superordinate goal; or 2) KNOW (not doubt, not “think,” not worry… but KNOW you no longer want the goal you thought you wanted.

If you want any particular success, no matter your belief in your ability to succeed JUST. START. ON. THE. JOURNEY. Test perceived “reality,” even if everyone around you tells you it’s “impossible,” even if YOU fear it is impossible.

Promise yourself you’ll start by just taking 100 steps forward towards the goal regardless of failure and regardless of your belief in your ability to succeed.

If you can do something once… then the question is no longer “if,” now the only question is HOW.

The first time you break through a barrier you realize you can do it.

The 2nd and 3rd time you realize you can repeat it.
The 4th, 5th and 6th time you realize you can do it when you choose.
The 7th and 8th time you realize you can do it at will.
The 9th time you realize that there’s another barrier you need to break through.

It’s time to break through your barriers.
Go farther. Go faster. Do it better.
Don’t give in. Succeed.™

Signed Life Success’ Bad Boy,
~ Mark Farmer