by Linda-Ann Stewart

Success is your natural state. You have the innate ability to accomplish anything you choose to do. As a child, you learned how to tie your shoes, use the alphabet and ride a bike. You learned how to reach your goal by moving toward it in small, incremental stages. When you missed your mark, you corrected your direction and tried again until you achieved it.

You didn’t question whether you’d accomplish it or not. You just kept working at it until you did. Only if you were told and believed that you couldn’t achieve it, would you fall short of your goal.

Whether you want to quit smoking, maintain an exercise program, make a sale, get ahead in life or fulfill your New Year’s Resolutions, your mindset will determine whether you succeed or fail. You have to believe that your goal is possible and achievable for you to be able to accomplish it.

If you don’t believe your goal is possible, then no matter how much effort you put into it you’re likely to be disappointed. Smokers who don’t believe they can quit will fail in their attempts. A salesperson who goes into a conversation with the idea they won’t make the sale will have his belief confirmed.

If you don’t believe that you can accomplish your goal, then you’re fighting an uphill battle against yourself. You want it, but you’ll unconsciously sabotage yourself to confirm your belief. When you serve a customer, they’ll sense your negative self-assessment and will say “No.” You’ll hold yourself back from committing your full drive, passion and determination to your desire.

It’s human nature to seek to be consistent with your beliefs. Do you dwell on your mistakes or difficulties and think it’ll never be different? If so, you’re setting yourself up to validate your idea. Even if you were handed success on a silver platter, if you haven’t conditioned your mind for it, success will seep away like sand through a sieve.

However, if you don’t succeed fully or immediately, it doesn’t mean that you’ve failed. You only fail when you give up. People who succeed aren’t defeated by setbacks. In each attempt, you learn something that you use to climb further up the ladder of accomplishment.

Before you can have success in the outer world, you have to accept it in your inner self. It’s like water rising to its own level. You’ll only have as much success as you can believe you can have. Studies have shown that a positive attitude is more important for success than education or skills, when it comes to getting a job and moving ahead.

The Universe created you to be a success, and you are the Universe in action in your life. Any block to it is your fearful mind believing in a lie. You were convinced of the impossibility when you were a child or when you were discouraged as an adult. The Universe is always a success, therefore success is your true nature.

Three ways to begin conditioning your mind for success:

1. Change your self-image so you identify with accomplishing your goal. Your self-image affects how successful you’ll be. Do you feel like a success or failure? Until a smoker can relate to being an “ex-smoker,” they’ll nearly always fall back into the old habit. Someone who has lost a lot of weight will have a hard time keeping it off until their self-image agrees with their new reality. A clerk will never be able to rise through the ranks until they’re able to view themselves as someone who could handle more responsibility. Discover and develop the qualities you need to be a success at what you want.

2. Picture some success you’ve had, no matter how small. Remember how you felt. When beginning a new project, associate that feeling of success with the first step you could take. Imagine it so vividly that it’s easy to put the steps into practice. Evoke a feeling of satisfaction when you think of your goal. Then make sure you begin to take action.

3. Don’t try to conceive of your final result as being inevitable. That may be too much a stretch for you at the beginning. Just open your mind to the idea that it’s possible. Imagine what the best outcome could be. By not trying to force it, you allow your subconscious to consider how it can begin to bring your ideas into reality. Turning it over in your mind allows you to visualize success without the pressure of fighting against conflicting ideas about it.

When you have the feeling that you’ll achieve your goal, you’ll uncover the resources and creative ideas needed to overcome whatever obstacles arise. Your mind will be ready for success, and will find the way to do what’s necessary to make your goal an accomplished fact. Establishing a positive and success mindset will carry over into all of your desires.

Affirmation:

I was created to be successful at whatever goal I chose. The Universe sees me as a success and operates through me. Success is my natural state. I now condition my mind for success by accepting that my goal is possible and achievable for me. Although I may not know how to accomplish it, the Universe and my creative mind know what to do and how to do it. I take the actions that I know to take and the next step now appears.