In his classic Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill asserts that what a person can believe and conceive, a person can achieve (actually gentle reader, he said men, but I’m updating – hope you don’t mind…).

An important distinction is that what YOU achieve is about what YOU believe about YOU. It’s about what you honestly in your heart of hearts believe you can achieve. It’s not what you’ve seen others do and certainly not what others believe or say about you. You have to believe with every fiber of your being that you can achieve what it is you want to accomplish.

We often make the mistake of following someone else’s plan, certain that they must know the right thing to do and the way to do it. How often have you been distracted from your work, your vision, your mission by the next, shiny new ‘thing’? How often if that shiny new thing the THING that someone else is doing. The THING that is THE formula for success.

Patience and Persistence

Your formula for success is more than likely doing it your way, bringing your unique skills and talents to bear on the project at hand. Part of your success formula is knowing what does work for you, understanding your strengths and weaknesses and working with your strengths, while working to improve what you don’t do as well, or learning to delegate what you’re not as good at and focus on what you do best.

Why are we so quick to believe someone else knows the answers? Particularly the answers for us? Have you ever had the experience of trying to follow someone else’s plan and failing only to decide that it’s because they’re ‘good’ at ‘it’ and you’re not?

1. Truth is, if you persist, doing what you’re best at, knowing that you’re doing what’s right for you, you will succeed. Don’t spend your precious time watching what everyone else is doing and stressing because you think if you only do what they do it will solve your problems and fix things once and for all. That your business will thrive if you were just more like _________ or if you did __________they way that __________does.

Be bold and look yourself in the mirror and ask the tough questions. Do you believe in yourself and have the faith and confidence to achieve your goals? If not, what can you do to build your confidence?

Remember, Hill says what the mind can BELIEVE. You must really believe it – so deeply that you FEEL it.  If you have a financial goal in mind and it’s three times what you’ve ever earned before, can you really wrap your mind around it? If you can, great. If you can’t, revise to a number that’s more realistic to you. You must believe it to achieve it.

Understand too, the difference between your own abilities and the plan you have. You may have the skills and abilities, but your approach may be lacking. You may have the skills but aren’t following your heart and what you think needs to be done. Trust me, knows one knows you as well as you do. Trusting your instincts is the first step on the path of self-awareness on the road to success. I encourage you to step boldly onto that path and claim your success.