Action Steps

1. Learn a Bit About the Lives of a Few of Your Heros

Who inspires you? Michael Jordan? Einstein? Nelson Mandela? Leonardo Da Vinci? Learn a bit about their lives. Look them up on Wikipedia, or browse around the web. Do you think their path to greatness was easy? That everyone always knew they would succeed, and supported their every effort? Quite the opposite. True greatness only comes in the face of challenge, and great people usually have had the most challenging lives. No one in Michael Jordan’s home town though he’d get any playing time in college, much less be a star. If he’d believed this, he wouldn’t have. Michael’s path to being the best basketball player on earth began with the dream that he could be.

2. Write Your One Page Autobiography

Project yourself into your future, and write your autobiography as you want it to be. You don’t have to write a lot – a couple of paragraphs is great. Put your life story somewhere you will see it every day – maybe inside the window of your medicine cabinet, or in a notebook, or above your bed. If there are images that inspire you – say the house you want to live in, the car you want to drive, or a picture of someone famous who has done everything that you want to do, paste them on. Whenever you see your autobiography, stop for a second and visualize living it. The single greatest determinant of success in life is belief in your own ability to succeed. Use the vision of your ideal life to provide focus and direction.

3. Overcome Your Fears by Focusing on Your Dreams

No matter how confident you are, you will still be afraid sometimes. Don’t you think that Bill Clinton was a little edgy the first few times he addressed a huge audience? Kobe Bryant probably felt a little nervous during the first timeout when Phil Jackson set up a play to give Kobe a shot at winning the game. But people like Bill Clinton and Kobe Bryant master their fears. They don’t deny them – they simply focus on what they need to do and step forward, believing in their skills to bring them the result they desire. All of us should take a page from this. It’s natural to feel anxious in the face of challenges, and even to fear failure. But the way you succeed is to channel your nervousness, and even your fear, into the energy to achieve your goals. The way you do this is by staying focused on those goals, and believing with every fiber of your being that you can achieve them.