This is a guest post by Trevor Edmon.
So you want more … love, money, happiness, health, … success. Where do you start?
Go to Google and type in “How to” and a gazillion websites will pop up. Should you want to build a better mouse trap that’s a very good thing. But “how to be successful in life” is too intangible. Besides, it’s different for everyone so there can’t exactly be a “one size fits all answer.”
Or can there?
I’m going to attempt that seemingly impossible feat. I’m daring to claim that by the time you have read to the end of this piece you will know the definitive way to be successful in any area of life you choose.
The Answer You Seek
Will it be meditation? Regular exercise? How about a radical change of diet? Or reciting affirmations all day long?
No. It will be none of the above, although if any of those notions appeal to you, feel free to include them in your routine. You see, those are all techniques and whilst they might lead you to feel better – so there’s nothing wrong with any of them – they cannot ever be the answer itself. They can only lead to the answer.
Let me give you this in a nutshell. Success comes to those who believe themselves to be successful.
It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, what your background is or if you have a wart on the end of your nose. The past is no indicator of your ability to succeed. There are endless stories of people who have turned tragedy into triumph. Check out Oprah Winfrey’s background or consider Nelson Mandela’s astonishing life story – a man who spent twenty seven years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit! You don’t have to look far for inspiration in case you need some.
If the belief that you can succeed at whatever you want in life is all you need, how do you acquire it, let alone keep it in the face of great adversity?
How to Acquire Self Belief for Success
I’ve already hinted that techniques are not the way to go, but perhaps I should explain that in more depth. Techniques are like arts or crafts. If you want to play a guitar you first need to learn some techniques. But if you really want to be a great musician merely knowing where to put your fingers to make some chords won’t be enough. The musical expression comes from you – and no one will ever play quite the way you do.
Here are 3 steps to bring that wonderful energy, your belief, to the forefront.
Step 1 – Remember How Special You Are.
Apparently there are about seven billion of us swarming all over this little planet of ours right now. That’s right now. Even if you’re an identical twin there isn’t one who is an exact replica of you. Never has been and never will be. You have your own thoughts, ways of doing things, your own special set of memories, tastes, idiosyncrasies … that whole package that is YOU. So stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of you and do your thing, man! (As Dylan might have said).
Far too many people worry about what other people will think of them, but this isn’t a philosophy that will lead to a life well lived. In the end, it is the “one-offs” – those who are not afraid to be themselves – who are the most loved and often the best remembered and they are also often the ones who make the biggest differences too. Not that that should be your goal. Just being yourself is enough!
Consider this strange list:
Bob Dylan. People aren’t supposed to write songs like that, sing out of tune or play guitar out of tune either. One of the best known and most revered musicians of the last fifty years.
Nelson Mandela. He should have been resentful or have had his spirit broken by his experience in prison. One of the world’s greatest peace makers in modern times.
Eddie Izzard. Proudly proclaimed his transvestism – and publicly appeared dressed in women’s clothes and has become one of the world’s most respected, loved and revered comedians and actors.
Rosa Parks. Refused to give up her seat on a bus just because she was black and changed the race discrimination laws of the USA.
Sylvester Stallone. Almost ran out of money and nearly lost his marriage in his determination to become an actor. When he wrote the screenplay to Rocky, agents didn’t want him – an unknown – to be in it. (They wanted Ryan O’Neill!) Stallone, despite being penniless, refused until he was offered, reluctantly, a tiny percentage of sales to star in it. The agent expected a minor B movie, but instead it made Stallone a multi-millionaire and a household name. I don’t know what became of the agent!
Let’s do one more. Muhammad Ali, who as the young Cassius Clay, used the power of his mind, as well as toning his body, to become the greatest boxer of all time. Who doesn’t know that that man repeatedly declared himself “the greatest.” And so he became.
Yes, I know I said you don’t need to repeat affirmations to believe in yourself, but I didn’t say you shouldn’t either. That would be just as much a “technique” as doing it. It suited Clay/Ali’s personality to use that. It felt good to him. But if it had felt stupid or embarrassing it wouldn’t have worked.
And there’s the point. You need to find what makes you feel good.
Step 2 – Trust Your Connection to All Things.
One of the biggest culturally held premises that stops millions from succeeding in life is the sense that you are alone and separate from everything. I’m not going to talk about God; that’s too controversial. Besides, a lot of people think of God as a separate being who gives them a lot of rules to follow. That’s still separation. And it’s like having a big, powerful boss.
I’m talking about your connection to Energy. Even at the simplest level you couldn’t survive without air, water, gravity or sunshine, so to consider those things separate from you is meaningless. Moreover, the energy is intelligent. Acorns always grow into oak trees and never become daffodils. Have you ever seen a nature documentary where a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly? Do you know that Monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles and return to the very same tree! All with a brain smaller than a pinhead!
If you cut yourself or even break a bone, your body immediately sets about healing the injury. Your food gets digested, your blood circulates and old cells are replenished and replaced with new ones billions of times a day – all “on their own.”
The miracles we take for granted are everywhere.
What does this mean in terms of self belief? It means trust your inner guidance – which you feel as emotions. Jiminy Cricket may have advised you to let your conscience be your guide, but I think your emotions are better. If it feels good – by which I mean you have passion or enthusiasm for something, or it feels joyful to do, then follow it. If it feels wrong in some way, leave it alone. Or change direction to something that feels more exciting.
Which brings us to step 3.
Step 3 – Be Prepared to Take Risks.
“Most people tiptoe through life hoping to make it safely to death,” I think it was Earl Nightingale who said this.
I ask you, what is the point of that? If your life consists of work that feels like drudgery to pay bills you struggle to meet and feel resentful about; or if you are in a relationship where at least one of you is hurting all the time; or if you are waiting for retirement so that you can finally have a bit of time to yourself to do what you really want to do … you aren’t living at all.
That is classified as survival, and although there is some satisfaction in surviving against the odds, in my mind, this is merely existing.
You are endowed with the most adaptable physiology on Earth. There is virtually no environment in which humans cannot live and thrive. More than that, you are endowed with an incredible faculty – imagination. You can dream, and that’s not an accident. Dreams give rise to desires and desires may challenge us, but there is no challenge you can think of that at least one human, if not entire nations, have not achieved once they decided to.
When I say “take risks” I don’t mean you should jump out of airplanes without a ‘chute or gamble your family’s home, I mean for you to use the guidance system you were born with. Trust the universe knows how to deliver what you have fixed in your mind’s eye and have the adventure you were always meant to have. It’s called your LIFE. Live it!
There You Have It: The Secret to Success
Have I achieved the impossible? Have I convinced you this is the definitive way to success? Do you understand the “formula”? The only way to be sure is if you go out and give it a try – which means believing in yourself and being all you want to be. My hope is you will prove I am right. Self belief is the secret to success.
About the Author:
Trevor Emdon trained in psychiatry and psychotherapy, studied Eastern philosophies and metaphysics, went to the U.S. to attend Anthony Robbins’ “Mastery University” and one day discovered that he not only had been happy for a good while, but that he was pretty good at passing his wisdom onto others – and it was changing lives.
He is in his 50s, happily married, lives in a gorgeous rural English village, has great health, and makes some of his income from his self help books online amongst other success coaching activities. You can get 2 free reports about success from his website www.thebookofbeing.com
Photo: Copyright PhotoXpress.com
