How to Believe Harder

You can tell me you believe wholeheartedly in your dream. You can tell me you are going to make a million dollars.

But if you aren't willing to take a risk, get rejected, or fail on the way there, I may not believe that you believe it.

I can believe in you and in your dream without believing that you believe in yourself yet. The difference shows up in what you do.

Believing isn't just wanting something. It isn't telling people how much you want it. Your belief generates emotion, and that emotion drives action. Certainty, excitement, and determination don't just sit in your head. They move you toward your goal.

Get out of maybe

While developing a sales process for certification, I wanted to be very clear about something: I don't believe in high-pressure sales or convincing people to join against their will.

I want people in my programs because they want to be there and have made that choice.

A yes and a no are equally valid decisions. Discovering that someone isn't a good fit is useful for both of us. What I don't want is for them to stay stuck in maybe.

Maybe is a dream stealer.

Helping someone reach their own true answer made me think about how to use that same process on myself. How could I sell myself on making a hundred million dollars, becoming a better manager, or creating a better team?

How could I help myself overcome the limitations between where I was and where I wanted to go?

Being busy isn't the same as believing

A friend told me she believed she would make a million dollars. She was working on her business, posting videos, and showing up on Instagram.

But she didn't have enough results from those actions. She didn't have enough failures or enough wins.

Doing things that have no real chance of rejection and no real chance of winning can keep you busy. That doesn't demonstrate belief in your goal.

I am not talking about failing because you didn't act. I am talking about taking your shot and missing. Making offers and hearing no. Learning from the response and trying again.

If you believe the payoff is there, you may be willing to invest your evenings, weekends, and effort. If you don't think your time will be worth it, you probably won't show up in the same way.

Look at both the amount and the quality of your action. If someone watched you from the outside, could they see how much you believe?

Know where you are and where you are going

Start with two questions: where are you right now, and where do you want to go?

I like to picture a little stick figure representing me now and another representing me when my dream has come true. Between them is an arcing bridge.

Think of that bridge as a ladder. The rungs are the obstacles between you and your goal.

Those obstacles are not just reasons you haven't arrived. They are the things you need to overcome to get there.

When you turn each obstacle into a strategy, you begin to have your how.

Turn your obstacles into strategies

Take a weight loss example. Suppose you weigh two hundred pounds and want to weigh one hundred fifty. You identify overeating, eating out too much, and not exercising as your obstacles.

Now turn them around.

If overeating and too much desire for food are obstacles, your strategy can be reducing that desire and eating less than your body requires for fuel.

If eating at restaurants too much is an obstacle, you can cook at home more or figure out how to eat at restaurants in a way that serves that goal.

The obstacles give you the prescription. Instead of staring at the distance between where you are and where you want to be, you have specific work to do.

The same applies to a business goal. What is between you and the result? What do you need to do to overcome it?

Be willing to take the risk

When I was working toward making a million dollars in a year, I gave a two-hundred-thousand-dollar refund. That was a huge risk. I took it because I believed in what I could create.

Belief can require putting your money where your mouth is. It can require taking a risk with your content or investing your time in something that might not work.

That doesn't mean being reckless or irresponsible with money. It means being deliberate.

If I can spend three dollars on an ad and make five, I want to do that. But if I don't believe I can create that result, I won't take the action.

And I am talking about people who can actually afford the purchase or investment. If someone literally cannot do it because of their finances, I would not recommend that they do it. We can extend the timeline and look at how they will come up with the money.

The question is what you are willing to do when you are in a position to move toward the result.

Let action help you believe more

The action will be uncomfortable and scary. You aren't ready for that end result yet. Falling down and getting up is part of how you become ready.

Figuring out the how requires courage, failure, and action.

There is also magic in taking action just before you fully believe. You can act as if you believe a little more than you do. Don't get too far ahead of yourself, but ask what you would do if you believed in the result.

For my hundred-million-dollar goal, that means asking what I would be willing to invest in advertising, hiring the right person, or bringing someone into the business to help me get there.

Ask the same question about your goal. What would you do? Which obstacle would you work on? What strategy would you try?

Action demonstrates belief. It also creates results that can help you believe more.

If you have been telling everyone how much you believe but don't have results, start taking the actions that can produce them. Take your shot, learn from it, and keep moving toward the dream.