Don’t sell yourself short. Way too many people set their goals and dreams lower than they should, settling for a life far less than they could have had. It is often so easy to convince yourself you can’t accomplish what you’d really like to accomplish.
If you find yourself doing this, or suspect that you may be, take a close look at the people, especially people you know, who are successful. You’ll often realize you have just as much going for you as they do or that they did before they became successful.
We’re constantly being hit with undermining arguments.. that you have to have money to make money, that you need the right connections or the right education, that you need to be a whiz at business, or that you can’t do it because you tried before and failed. The fact is that none of these things are true.
Many people believe they’re not smart enough to be successful beyond a certain level. This is also usually just not true.
What is intelligence? Is it your IQ? How well you did in school? Are the people with the highest IQ the most successful in life? The people who graduate at the top of their class? It may surprise you, but study after study is repeatedly unable to find any significant connection whatsoever between IQ and success in life.
Quite the opposite. A guy named Robert Sternberg studied thousands of people, looking for the keys to success. He found that successful people:
- Motivate themselves
- Learn to control their impulses
- Know how to make the most of their abilities
- Complete tasks and follow through
- Are initiators
- Aren’t afraid to risk failure
- Make mistakes, but not the same mistake twice
- Don’t procrastinate
It’s an interesting list, isn’t it? So where’s the high IQ? Where’s being smart? What you are seeing is that many things together make up being smart. Academic intelligence is just one of them and as it turns out not a very important one.
What about people skills? Artistic ability? Mechanical aptitude? Common sense? Street smarts? All of the things listed above? Aren’t they all a part of intelligence?
The fact is that it is these things, not the stuff we’re constantly being preached to about, that usually determine success and happiness in life.
So don’t sell yourself short. Think about these things and about the skills and aptitudes you do have, and how much you really do have going for you.
We’re all good at something and not at others. So do what you’re good at. It’s what you like best, it’s what‘ll probably end up making you the most money and, for sure, give you the best life. As to what you’re not good at, get others to help you. Trade your skills for theirs.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the power of positive thinking. Well I’m here to tell you it works. It really does. So always believe in yourself, and you should. I ask you… how many bad little kids you ever run across? Not many, right? How many bad babies? None!
So what’s my point. My point is that all of us are hit, all of our lives, and starting very young, with negative baggage.. from our parents who love us, from society. You can’t do this, you’re not good at that, you’re not that smart, and so on. Well it’s not true. We all start out good and that’s who we really are, deep down.
Take a moment and look at a picture of yourself as a little kid. What’s wrong with that kid? Nothing, right? He was a good kid. Well that kid is you. So don’t let the problems of others cloud your vision, your judgement. Always believe in yourself.
When you do you’re both making the right decision and also seeing to it that things will go well for you. Don’t for one minute think you can’t have the life you wish for, because you can.
When it comes to money and especially for your life as a whole, the number one key to your success or failure will be whether or not you have, or adopt, a positive attitude.
A lot of really smart people have talked about this down through the ages. Not that long ago it was covered in a book and then a movie called The Secret. Prior to that, Dr. Wayne Dwyer had a bestseller called The Power of Intention. Seventy years ago it was Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking. All were saying the same thing: what you expect, you get. So if you really want all that life can offer, maintain a positive attitude. Believe in yourself. Don’t ever sell yourself short.