Believe It’s Possible

It’s fundamental to any endeavour, the belief that it is possible. Even if we can get off the starting blocks, which is also a vital element of success, without the belief that the thing we want is possible there is no chance of making it happen.

If you don’t believe that running the marathon is possible, you won’t get far in your training – if you even get off the sofa. If you don’t believe that life can be better, then you want even try to make it so. If you don’t believe that people like you can do things like that, you won’t bother.

And there’s something else, which comes when we compare our lives to those who have more or, in our eyes, have the perfect life. We want to be rich and famous like George Clooney, or super successful like Richard Branson, or a leading artist like Grayson Perry, or a chart-topping pop star like Leo Sayer. But in our heads, when we think of those things, we think of George Clooney, Richard Branson, Grayson Perry or Leo Sayer. Or at best, we think of us as George Clooney, Richard Branson, Grayson Perry or Leo Sayer. We don’t think of us and us. We’re not picturing successful versions of our lives, but the lives of others.

And when we aren’t picturing us in those situations, but people other than us, or us as someone else, we’re not picturing something that is possible. And so, the vision becomes flawed. We are picturing something unreal, or foreign, or quite literally impossible. We cannot be those people.

But we can be us. We do it every day. And every day when we wake up we are born again with the opportunity to be us, but better. Us a little bit healthier, us a little bit wealthier, us a little bit closer to that goal. We can arm ourselves with the information we need to make a plan, we can reach out to people to collaborate with in our new business venture, we can go for a run around the block, we can drink a glass of water, we can read a book, we can take a break. We can fashion ourselves and our lives into the ideal version of them. Not wealthy and successful like Richard Branson, wealthy and successful like us. But we need to believe it’s possible.

What would we look like if we realised our dream? Not the dream of having someone else’s life, but our life. Not the dream of having someone else’s massive bank balance, but the dream of having our massive bank balance. Not the dream of having Ronaldo’s physique, but the dream of having our ideal physique (unless you are Ronaldo, in which case this blog now has A-list celebrity endorsement).

What does your dream life look like? And what do the version of you who lives that life look like?  Is it really you? If it is, you must have got there somehow. Imagine it. How did you make it happen? Not a lottery win, not a lucky break, but what real steps did that version of you take to get where they are? What kind of person did they have to be? How much more decisive, confident, and prone to action is that version of you compared to the version of you reading this post right now? Does that version of you make the same excuses that you do? Do they deal with their obstacles that get in their way, or avoid them like you do? What are they doing that you are not?

Who do you need to be, and what do you need to do in order to be that person and live that life?

As soon as something seems possible, it becomes doable. And when something is doable, you can take the steps required to make it so. Now that you know what to do, do it.