Love or bread? My buddy asked me this fundamental question one fine day, totally out of the blue. What’s your call? Love? Bread? But wait, why can’t you have both?

We’re conditioned to believing that we can only have very few things in our life – maybe just 1 out of these: wealth, beauty, health, friendship, relationship, etc. But why can’t we have everything? Or are we being a little greedy and naive here? Not really. Read this quote by Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Powerful. Don’t you get rewarded at work if you can motivate and inspire your organization to be more productive and competitive? Don’t you get rewarded if you will just solve others’ problems, one after another?

So, what’s holding you back from having everything you want in life? It’s the good ol’ outdated beliefs embedded in our paradigm. We were brought up with the belief that we can only ‘wish’ to be the next Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or whoever you consider successful. When someone around you says he or she wanna be the next _________ (fill in the blanks with your hero), wouldn’t others just laugh at the person’s naivety and foolish thinking?

“Who do you think you are?”

“You can try but you will fail! Haha!”

“Stop kidding me!”

If you’ve been the victim of negative thinking, stay away from those who mocked your dream from today onwards. You have to truly believe in your own dream if you want to achieve it. No one else will have the same passion and love for your dream as much as yourself. If you don’t have a strong personal conviction for it, you can bet that a small setback could easily throw your life upside down. The path to excellence and success is full of challenges, and that’s how we would learn and grow along the way. Sometimes, you have to dream of the “impossible”! Right, you might or might not get everything you want, but you will get nothing if you don’t try at all. In fact, Zig Ziglar said, success is not a destination, it’s a journey. You will surely gain a lot of valuable learning experiences that will help you excel in many aspects in life. Forget about the people who do not believe in your dream, what do they know about success if they are not successful themselves? Well, at least they serve a purpose – to challenge the belief of your dream and make it even stronger.

All of us have huge potential, but it would only be released if we believe it. For instance, you want to be a great speaker but you don’t think that you could be one, so you never bother to try. What’s really holding you back here? No, not your skills. You can speak comfortably with your friends and family. What you need is the will! The will to believe that you can do it. It only takes practice, practice, and more practice, and the will to not give up no matter how bad your next speech might be. I really don’t think that Obama was born a great speaker. He’s definitely practiced a whole lot throughout his entire life, especially during his role as a civil rights attorney in Chicago. Did he think big? You bet! To be the first African American President of the United States, it takes a tremendous amount of belief, courage, and persistence. Dr. David J. Schwartz wrote in his book, “The Magic of Thinking Big”, that YOU, no one else, have to believe big. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big successes!

Also, if you are a parent, believe firmly in your child’s dream. If you don’t, no one else would. I’ve seen many people being deprived of their own dream because of their parents’ beliefs, or chasing their dream without the support of their parents. Don’t pass judgments on your children and say “I told you so!” when they come back failing. Believe in them, and believe in their dream as if it’s yours. You don’t need to give them money. You only need to give them words of encouragement and love, just like you always do. They might not succeed ultimately, but that’s okay because they’ve done their best and would have no regrets. You don’t want them to say “What if I had tried that?” 20 years down the road. The same thinking should apply to yourself, whether or not you’re a parent. Go for it and live like there’s no tomorrow!

So, beginning from this moment, change your old stinking thinking to a brand new big thinking. Remind yourself that anyone can be successful in their own ways. You don’t need IQ of 200 to be successful. Successful people are only people who firmly believe in what they do and do it with passion and diligence. When you’re faced with a challenge or when opportunity appears, think “I can do it and I will succeed”. Know that success is none other than believing in your ability to do it. Here’s a caveat by Zig Ziglar: “The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work – if you won’t.” Hope you find this helpful, and let’s meet at the top!

(Picture is created by adam*b from Flickr, thanks!)

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