Positive thinking.
I’ve talked about the power of positive thinking before — specifically in 9 of the What I’ve learned about achieving personal goals.
The thing about successful people (achievers) and “unsuccessful” people (non-achievers) is that they think differently from each other. Successful people ultimately end up creating their own success through their habitual way of thinking (and then acting on those thoughts). They think they can, so they do.
If you were successful all the time, would you think differently about achieving goals than someone who is habitually down on themselves? Of course you would.
The main thought process that distinguishes “achievers” from “non-achievers” is OPTIMISM.
So if you want to be an achiever, become an optimist.
Optimists don’t always succeed at everything they do, but they are so confident in their overall success, that they don’t let their failures or shortcoming be anything but a temporary setback. Instead, they just chalk these up as learning experiences and resolve to keep trying things until they succeed.
Now, I’m not suggesting to just become blind to doing something poorly, or failing, or that blind optimism is a good thing. Thinking positive only gets you so far. Thinking positive can help provide the fuel necessary to accomplish difficult tasks, but it doesn’t mean mistakes or failures don’t happen.
The trick is to be persistent and to keep trying different things until you reach your goal. You can’t keep doing the same things and expect to get different results.
One thing that might be somewhat encouraging is realizing this:
Successful people fail a lot.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
When one feels optimistic about their life and dreams, that’s encouraging.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-TeoOFoHQ
