What is holding you back from achieving all of the success that you are capable of achieving? This is not a simple question to answer. Some people would look outside of themselves and point to their company products or procedures and rules for holding them back. Others would point to their manager or to their office processes as the cause for their lack of achieving all that they know they are capable of. I’m sure that there is some truth to these answers.

But let's be honest
It is important that we tell ourselves the truth
In the final analysis YOU are the chief architect of your own success – and there is some good news and some bad news attached to this reality.

Here is the bad news:
If you are not achieving what you expect and want to achieve – you need to look within yourself. You are the reason you are falling short.

Here is the good news:
You have it in your power to change.

Dr. Napoleon Hill is quoted as saying, “Nothing ever just happens. You have to make things happen, including individual success. Success is the direct result of definite action, carefully planned and persistently carried out by the person who has conditioned his mind for success and believes he will attain it.”

Why should we listen to Napoleon Hill? According to Wikipedia, Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883-November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is perhaps best known for his book, Think and Grow Rich, which is one the best selling books of all time. Hill examined the power of personal beliefs and the role they play in achieving success.

We program ourselves for success of failure by our internal and repeated self-talk. Earl Nightingale, the founder of the audio self-help genre said that, “We become what we think about most of the time.” Unfortunately, we are sometimes unaware of just how many negative and self-defeating thoughts we have floating around in our head.

Any form of negativity that you engage in will have a detrimental impact on your results and success. Perhaps you question your abilities or belief about what is possible for you to achieve. Perhaps you had a bad experience in the past with something you tried to achieve and now blindly just assume that any similar attempt will always turn out that same way now and in the future. This type of negative programming may not be as obvious to detect as you may think. Often times, it is very subtle, yet pervasive. Oddly enough, we seem very well equipped to notice it most often in others.

Unlike a magnet where opposite charges (positive and negative) attract each other, just the reverse happens when it comes to our thoughts-like thoughts attracts like thoughts.

Will just changing your thoughts be enough to get the results you desire? No! But it’s a great start. You must take positive action. According to Dr. Hill the subconscious mind does not take orders from the conscious mind. It acts and responds only to your emotions. The stronger the emotion the stronger the impact it has on you. The subconscious mind will carry out the instructions of negative emotions just as quickly as it will respond to positive emotions.

So here is the formula to tilt the success scale in your favor.
Begin by clearly and vividly imagining the results you desire. To do this you must be very precise and very clear about what you want to have happen or achieve. Next, create very specific and measurable action steps to achieve it. Set target dates for the completion of each step. Begin to implement each step. Review your progress often, make adjustments where necessary, but always keep your end goal firmly planted and vividly imagined in your mind.

Decide to take action. The worse thing you can do is to do nothing. By taking action you keep moving toward the accomplishment of your goals. It’s much better to make many small course corrections or adjustments to your game plan than to keep going down a path of action that is not working for you.

To help keep you on track, find someone you can periodically talk to who will act as your sounding board and keep you accountable to implementing the action plan you created to reach your goal(s).

Finally, one of the best ways to put your self-talk to work for you is to create positive self-suggestions or affirmations. Repeat them often so that they will become automatic thoughts. Here are some examples taken from my book,



What Every Great Salesperson Knows - A No-nonsense Guide to Sales Success


I welcome difficult and challenging assignments
Each day I enjoy moving beyond my comfort zone and conquering my anxieties and personal blocks to achievement
I will continue to move ahead in my career in spite of an occasional setback or disappointment
Good luck to you on your journey to success.