Believe in Yourself

Jack Canfield's Success Principle #5

(1) Believing in yourself is an attitude.
Jack Canfield asks us again today to believe that we have what it takes to create our desired results. He teaches us that research proves that anyone can do almost anything. The human brain is capable of learning new skills at any age; and with proper training and practice, people can achieve impossible dreams. He points out that we must begin acting as if we have already achieved our dreams.

I am imagining that I am walking onto the set of a national news broadcast, such as Good Morning America. The audience is applauding, and the TV journalists are smiling with approval at me. Hope Among the Ashes has become one of the most sought-after life success programs, and I have been invited to speak about my latest book and speaking tour. I know that if I can pretend this is happening, it will eventually become reality. I don't have to know how to get from here to there; my brain will fill in the blanks as I go along.

2) The choice of what to believe is up to you.
When we continually hit brick walls, we can do one of two things. Either we can give up, and tell ourselves it's impossible to achieve what we're after; or we can search for another way to make our dreams come true.

Sometimes, we're trying to achieve something, because someone else has wired us to believe it's our destiny. For example, when I was a young girl, my mother enrolled both my sister and me in dancing lessons. My sister could tap dance like Ginger Rogers, never missing a beat. I constantly found myself stumbling around a few beats behind, watching other dancers who seemed to remember the steps far better than I did.

I wish I had figured out way back then that I preferred playing the piano to tap dancing. I would have given up the dance lessons and opted for more time at the piano. Remember, we get to choose what we become.

(3) You have to give up "I Can't."
Several years ago, I learned about the energy field that surrounds each of our bodies. An herbalist showed me a way to tear down someone else's energy field with my hands, until that person could no longer hold out his left arm.

Interestingly, Jack Canfield has shown me another way to look at this. If we ask someone to hold out their left arm to the side and resist us, we generally cannot push their arm downward. If we ask them to just think about something that they can't do, they have a little trouble holding up that arm. If we take it one step further and ask them to speak aloud, "I can't _____________," that arm becomes so weak, we can push it to their side without resistance.

As survivors of verbal abuse, you can begin to see how huge an impact our critics' words had on us. Every time our abusers shouted at us, told us we were incompetent, or said unkind words to us, our energy field got damaged.

I have been visiting a healing touch practitioner, and she observed that my energy field had great dents in it. She explained that this is a common occurrence among people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With her help, and with my belief in the dream of getting well, we have seen huge improvements in my energy field.

We can all reclaim our personal power and heal our energy fields. It begins with the belief that we can. The Bible tells us, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

(4) Don't waste your life believing you can't.
What if someone told you today that you have only a few months to live? Would you feel that you'd wasted your life, never taking the risks to become what you wanted to be?

In 1992, I was diagnosed with melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Within days, I was whisked through a large group orientation for people facing this disease. I was told to get my affairs in order and to make sure that I had life insurance before I continued with my treatment. The prognosis for someone with stage four cancer was extremely poor.

Suddenly, the prospect of living only a few months made me realize that I had wasted a great deal of time on pursuits that were really not important to me. I decided to quit my teaching job and give up my doctorate degree work. The only thing that seemed important to me was time spent with my children. I did not want to leave them without a mother.

I believed that God could heal me, so I called a minister who had a gift for healing people. I asked him to pray for me, which he did. When the doctors performed my surgery a few days later, they were dumb-founded. They could not locate a single cancer cell in the tissue they removed! Never believe that God can't do the impossible. And quit wasting your life, believing that you can't achieve your dreams.

(5) It's all about attitude.
Your attitude about challenges, remember, will dictate your outcomes in life. (E + R = O) I adopted the attitude that I refused to die before my children were grown, and I got a far better outcome than most other patients in that melanoma clinic 18 years ago. I am living proof that attitude is everything.

(6) Don't assume you need a college degree.
Jack points out that lifelong learning is essential to our success; but a college degree is not. He cites many examples of people who have become millionaires without ever attending college.

I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and most of a doctorate degree in education. I also worked on a degree in interior design. I can honestly say that I have learned far more about how to navigate my way through life by reading the Bible and learning from wiser Christians than I ever learned in college.

However, I don't think that I would have the discipline that I do today if I hadn't attended the University of Michigan. Surrounded by people of high intellect, I was challenged daily to push myself beyond my comfortable limits. I think that surrounding ourselves with highly successful people can be one of the most helpful things we can do to make our dreams come true. Whether we find these guides in college or somewhere else is up to each one of us to decide.

(7) What others think about you is none of YOUR business.
I had to read this several times before I got the point. We all spend far too much time worrying about what people think of us. Believe it or not, most people are too busy thinking of themselves to even notice what you're doing or saying.

My favorite quote comes from Dr. Seuss: Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Today's Challenge
Keep working on your purpose statement and your dreams. Imagine yourself at the pinnacle of success, and act out what you will be doing. Walk onto that imaginary stage and wave to the cheering audience. Or step onto that pitcher's mound and wind up to throw the winning pitch. Believe it, and you can become whatever you dream.

Love One Another

My apologies to you, dear readers, for taking so long to write. I was injured by a drunk driver on July 29, and I'm slowly recovering.

Since I have been homebound for the past couple of months, I have been listening frequently to the Gospel of John. Jesus's command to love one another comes across more clearly with each passing day.

I have felt God's love through many people lately. Friends have come to clean, prepare meals, garden, and visit. Their sacrifice of time speaks volumes about God's love.

If we love one another, we make these sacrifices to give up what we want to do in order to take care of someone else's needs. We pray, listen patiently, encourage, provide a meal, take time for a special activity with a friend, clean a house, write a note, and so on. And when we perform these acts without grumbling or worrying about ourselves, then we know that we are expressing God's true love; and joy inevitably follows.

Sometimes, we encounter people who have lost their ability to love. They send short emails or text messages that read, "I love you." They say the words whenever they leave the house or end a phone conversation. But there seems to be little or no joy as they go through their day. They rush others, they complain, they speak impatiently, they let their anger show. Mostly, they let everyone they meet know how miserable their lives have become. They complain about everything, because they've forgotten how to tap into God's love and express it to others. This kind of attitude is like a cancer that will kill all love if it is left untreated.

I now realize what the secret to joy is: it means that I praise God minute by minute for every good and bad thing that happens to me. I keep on serving those around me with a smile on my face and a song in my heart, no matter how hard life becomes. I keep loving people, even when they are ungrateful or rude. Because even when things become unbearable, I can always be thankful that I'm not in this alone. Jesus is always beside me, holding my hand.

I am thankful that God has given me this recovery time to see this truth about His love. I have asked Him and others to forgive me for the times when I have served grudgingly or with resentment.

God continues to send special people into my life so that I can focus more on giving away my love than on trying to find some. I think Jesus wants us to remember that love is a gift to be freely given, not a commodity to be earned or bought.

Search for someone today who practices this kind of heartfelt love, and you will rediscover what it means to be joy-filled. After all, joy and grouchiness can't co-exist. People who love God and embrace all circumstances as opportunities have learned that love is the antidote to depression, burn-out, and hopelessness.

So, love somebody today and rediscover the joy and peace that Christ promises.