Tonight is bittersweet for me. It’s the season finale of American Ninja Warrior. I’m not much of a TV watcher, in fact the joke in my family is that if you want to put me to sleep, put me in front of the TV. However, if you are not familiar with American Ninja Warrior, it’s a summertime television series that is an incredibly difficult obstacle course that gets progressively more difficult as the weeks progress. I find myself fascinated with this show because the seemingly impossible gets conquered every week. Throughout the years (yes, I’ve watched this show every summer for years) you observe the participants set a personal goal, set their mind to this course, commit themselves to conquering it, and watch them perform better and better each year. They do not compete against each other, but compete only against themselves. I love the camaraderie of the participants and the positive energy that is palpable through the TV screen. It embarrassingly brings me to tears watching their inevitable fails and surprising successes.
Set Your Mind Right
Through some of my personal experience I realize how much your mindset is important for success in anything that you try to accomplish. Just as Henry Ford said, “whether you think you can or you think you can not, you are right.” This sums it up perfectly. What are you trying to accomplish? Most importantly, what are you telling yourself, both consciously and subconsciously, about your success?
One Simple Step
Research shows that the more you hear something, either positive or negative, you will believe it and make it a reality. The one simple step to set yourself up for success in achieving your goal is to create a mantra. A mantra is a simple statement or phrase repeated frequently. This one simple step can determine whether you succeed or fail, stay stuck where you are or move forward. Creating a positive phrase that means something to you and repeating it over and over (even if you don’t believe it at first) will create a shift in your world. I’ve seen it happen time after time.
The one I have been teaching my son for many years is “I am smart, I am strong, I can do anything.”
Some others I’ve worked with are “I am exceptional and I deserve the best in my life.”
“I am enough.”
“I am not who I was, I am always changing.”
“Ask for what you want.”
“I believe I can.”
“I am creating the person I want to become.”
Your mantra should be words that have meaning to you (however if you can’t think of one, feel free to use one of the ones above). And you must repeat it over and over and over and over. Paste it on your bathroom mirror, write it on a sticky note on your computer, put it in your car, on the refrigerator, as a screen saver on your phone. Repeat until you begin to believe it. Then continue repeating it and allow your world to put things into place to make your goal happen.
