I’m a Star Wars fan. The original Star wars that is, aka the middle three. Between Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; I could watch these movies again and again and never get tired of them! They were on TV this weekend, and I couldn’t help but watch a bit.
I was watching The Empire Strikes Back and there was the scene where Yoda is training Luke and tells him to lift his ship out of the water it’s stuck in and Luke says he can’t. He says that Yoda is asking the impossible of him. When Yoda manages to pull the ship out the water with the power of his mind, Luke says, “I don’t believe it!” and Yoda replies, “That’s why you fail.” How’s that for food for thought?
Okay, enough Star Wars for today 😉 I’ve heard Wayne Dyer say that you have to believe it in order to achieve it. I used to think that you had to see it to believe it. It took me a long time to understand that my thoughts are powerful and that I really need to be mindful of where I place my focus. I can’t tell you how many times I have sabotaged myself because I started working on a goal with the expectation that it was never going to work out.
I used to justify it by telling myself that believing that I would be successful was just setting myself up for disappointment. I was so afraid of failure that I didn’t want to get excited about the possibility of making my goals a reality because I didn’t want to face the heartbreak of it not happening. It took me a long time to realize that worrying about the worst case scenario was just negative goal setting!
Expecting the worst just brought it to my doorstep. It’s crazy that it took so long for me to change my thinking and start to focus on what I did want and get excited about it! It was my understanding of the power of visualization that made me realize that we have to start off with the belief that we can and WILL make our goals a reality.
Think about it – professional athletes don’t make the winning shots by thinking about the fact that they could miss. They are focused on making the shot. I’m sure if you asked, they can already hear the crowds cheering and their teammates celebrating with them. They believe that they can, and they do.
It’s no coincidence that the cup I’m drinking my lemon tea out of shares the same message – I believed I could, so I did. I saw the mug a couple years ago and knew it had to come home with me! I struggled with this concept of such a long time that I felt like I needed a constant reminder that I have to believe in myself and my abilities if I want to successfully accomplish my goals.
We have to have faith in ourselves and believe that what we want for our lives can become a reality if we want to create the life that we want and deserve. ♥