Build the Belief That Moves Mountains

Napoleon Hill, writing in the classic Think and Grow Rich, said that belief and desire are the beginning of all achievement. If one of those key ingredients is missing, success is almost impossible.

That might explain why a lot of people get excited about an idea (desire) but fail to follow through with it (belief). It's rare that we will attempt to do something that we don't believe in, and we will never give 100% of our effort to something without a strong belief that we can do it. It's our human defense mechanism. In As A Man Thinketh, James Allen tells us, "The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do." In Above Life's Turmoil he tells us, "Belief always precedes action."

That certainly helped me understand why I'd find myself with some great ideas that I thought would be successful, and then six months would pass by and I hadn't done anything about them. I didn't have the deep down belief they'd be successful, so I simply didn't take any action on them. And that's the same experience that most people have that steals the great dreams they have for their lives.

• Do you have a strong desire but lack belief in your ability or the future?
• Are you working harder but can’t seem to make any progress?
• Are you frustrated because you just can’t breakthrough the barriers in your life
• Do you have a “settle for” attitude (ie., “it’s not what I want but it’s better than a lot of people have.”)?
• Are you tired of watching others zoom by on the super-success highway while you seem stuck on the side of the road?

What do think?