Believe In Yourself, Even When You Don't ACTUALLY Believe.

byBobby79

171 followers

5 years ago

So I'm gonna share a little, and with all good luck, I'll gain as much from sharing as you will from taking the time to read it...

Zero Goals Lead To Zero Progress

So, I've lived quite a life. I've been a roamer, I've been a miscreant on occasion, I've been motivated to succeed on many occasions, but the follow-through just never seemed to be there. I had the IDEA of where I wanted to be, but since nothing ever truly resonated with me, that's all it ever was... an IDEA.

However, in my many attempts at trying new things outside my comfort zone of physical labor, I have observed something that DOES resonate. Every successful person I've ever met has literally written goals down on paper. They refer to these goals regularly, and in doing so, regularly remind themselves that they're trying to reach a certain place in life.

Growing up on a cattle farm in Missouri wasn't really a childhood that promoted goals so much as it promoted WORK, I learned tenacity, I learned perseverence, I learned dedication. But what I didn't learn was how to connect these qualities to my own personal path in life.

So when my mother and I moved to Florida at the age of 14, my journey of roaming began, but without an actual DIRECTION, I just kinda did whatever felt right at the time. I learned a great deal about this world and the people in it, but I never learned much about MYSELF.

This is not the way to being successful in life. In Latin, there is a phrase, "scio te ipsum". It means "Know Thyself". Without a goal in mind, you can never actually know yourself, because all you're doing is living for other people. The people you work for, the people you pay your bills to, your friends, your children, your family.

Don't get me wrong, a great many people live out happy lives inside their comfortable little worlds, and never question the things that eat at them when they're alone. It's very easy to disregard negative feelings as just "worrying too much", or "being tired".

Spending a good 20 years without actual goals, and without actually confronting my own flawed human psychology led me to "feeling tired" FAR too often. For a couple of years, my head was in a SERIOUSLY dark place, and I almost didn't make it out.

However, at some point, an intelligent person realizes, "there's something wrong in MY head, otherwise I could be doing the same thing these other happy, successful people are doing." Thats when you start looking for examples of people that have something figured out that you don't.

Step number one, as any successful person will tell you, is to make just ONE goal, not a big one, something you KNOW you can acheive with a little bit of effort. Maybe a goal for the day, maybe one for the week or the month, then write it down and put it somewhere you can see it. This written goal is your DIRECTION. It is a life-changing moment, because before you wrote it down, it was just an IDEA. Now it EXISTS. Now it affects you every time you see it.

Stop Beating Yourself Up!

I love little cliches like, "You are your own worst enemy", or "to walk a mile, you must walk one foot at a time". Far too often we disregard the actual MEANING of these platitudes, because they just sound so played out.

Truth is, these little wisdoms are exactly that, WISDOM. Being your own worst enemy is one of these wisdoms that a GREAT many of us suffer from regularly. Ever notice how the people that know you often have so much more "faith" that you can do something than you do? That's because they don't hear your inner monologue, you know, that little voice that says:

"I'd rather not, I probably can't do it anyway"

"Maybe I'll look into it later, I just don't have the time right now"

"Man, that's awesome, I wish I had what it takes to do that"

I guarantee you, if you spoke out loud the words that little voice is saying to you, the faith that people are feeling in you would die pretty quick. They would see a lack of self-worth and immediately realize that you actually DON'T have what it takes to do it.

But for the most part, we keep that little voice quiet, and do you know why? Because that voice IS NOT YOU. That voice is your BRAIN trying to protect itself from harm. It knows that by playing it safe, staying inside its own little comfort zone, it can at least SURVIVE another day.

But is that all you want? To SURVIVE?

If you want to LIVE instead of just get by, you HAVE to shut that stupid little voice of self-doubt up. I want to tell you something that you WANT to believe, but probably don't:

IF SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT TOO.

We are all equpped with the same computer, the same machine, as everyone else. Sure, the programming is completely different in each one of us, but guess what? It's literally just that, PROGRAMMING. We can reprogram our computer any way we choose. People do it every day. Sinners repent, addicts recover, lazy people start working out, Crazy people get therapy... these are all human beings, just like YOU, putting in the effort to change the way their brain works.

When your "self" starts telling you that you can't do something, do yourself a favor. Do the same thing you would do if someone ELSE tried to tell you that you are incapable...

GET PISSED.

If you let your scared little voice in your head tell you what to do, then you are going to keep going to work 40 hours a week, you're going to keep coming home and feeling so grateful to sit on your couch and have a beer, and you're going to wish in the morning that you didn't have to repeat the same pattern today.

Get angry at your brain, (not at yourself, because remember, they are NOT the same thing), and fight back. If your brain tells you that you're tired, tell it to shut up, then get up and do a thing you wouldn't normally do. Try to accomplish a goal. And when you fail, and that voice speaks up again even louder, beat it into submission.

TRY AGAIN.

One of my favorite cliches: "If at first you dont succeed..."

You already know the rest.

Have a great night!

Bobby