Wanted

BELIEVE YOU

CAN DO IT

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6

wa nte d

Belief is the essence of success

No matter how many setbacks you experience in

pursuing your career goals you have to believe that

one day you will achieve them. If you lose belief you

will give up and become defeated. Belief is an

essential motivational driver in your career. You

have to believe this!

One of my favourite quotations is by

the French Nobel Literature laureate

Anatole France: ‘To accomplish great

things we must not only act, but also

dream, not only plan but also believe.’

This statement has been a driving

force in my life.

Here are two of my own personal examples: ‘I dreamed I would

travel the world and visit many countries. I believed I could. I

did so.’ ‘I dreamed I would write a book and get it published. I

believed I could. I did so.’

Back in 1859 nobody believed it was possible to get a man on the

moon. Just over 100 years later, speaking to a Joint Session of

Congress on 25 May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared: ‘I

believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal,

before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and

returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this

period will be more impressive to mankind.’

That goal was achieved on 21 July 1969 when the first person set

foot on the lunar surface. ‘That’s one small step for man, one

giant leap for mankind,’ said Neil Armstrong.

You can do what you

believe you can do.

You can’t do what you

believe you can’t do

You are more likely to fail in the absence of belief than if you have

it. So whatever your goals in life you have to believe you can

achieve them. First it means (in the context of this book) focusing

on your career goals as well as those for your current job. Second,

it means digging deep into your soul to discover whether you

really do have the belief that you can achieve these goals.

Another way of looking at this is as follows: ‘If someone else can

achieve it then I believe I can too.’ This is applicable whether

your goal is to run a Fortune 500 company or devote your life to

reducing poverty. It does not matter whether your goals are long

term or short term as long as you believe you can achieve them.

This belief emanates from the soul and relates to what is really

important to you in the future.

Whilst the essential motivational drivers are dreams and beliefs

it is important to differentiate these from fantasies. The

prospect of any fantasy coming true is remote. I might have a

fantasy of winning a few million on the lottery, but in 14 years I

did not win more than £100 on any one occasion, despite an

outlay during this period of many thousands. Equally I might

have a fantasy of meeting a beautiful young starlet and living

with her in paradise on some exotic tropical island with palm

trees, white beaches and crystal-clear blue water. Both fantasies

are unrealistic. To make a dream come true you must have a

belief that it can come true, a belief that the dream can be

converted into a future practical reality.

Furthermore you can only turn a dream into reality if you

believe there is specific action you can take, no matter how

tough, that will lead you in that direction. There is no action I

can take to realise a fantasy. Even if I spent a million buying

lottery tickets the probability of winning more than a million is

very low. However, I can take action to write a book and get it

published. Belief relates to what you ‘can do’ and not to what you

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Believe You Can Do It