Success Principle 4: BELIEVE YOUR DREAM IS POSSIBLE

“You can be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceived and believed, the mind can achieve.”

The above statement was first given by Napoleon Hill. The fact is the mind is such a powerful instrument; it can deliver to you literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible. That is why the bible exhorts you in Rom. 12:1-3 not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

Scientists used to believe that humans responded to information flowing into the brain from the outside world. But today, they’re learning instead that we respond to what the brain, on the basis of previous experience, expects to happen next. Why does the brain work this way? Neuropsychologists who study expectancy theory say it’s because we spend our whole lives becoming conditioned. Through a lifetime’s worth of events, our brain actually learn what to expect next – whether it eventually happens that way or not. And because our brain expects something will happen a certain way, we often achieve exactly what we anticipate.

This is why it’s so important to hold positive expectations in your mind. When you replace your old negative expectations with more positive ones – when you begin to believe that what you want is possible – your brain will actually take over the job of accomplishing that possibility for you. Better than that, your brain will actually expect to achieve that outcome. This is not strange because the bible says in Eph. 3:20 that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, more than what we can think or imagine according to his power that is at work within us.

The above concept was the experience of Abraham. After God had promised him a child at the age of 75, he waited for the fulfillment of that promise for 25 years. While waiting, he did not give up on what God had promised; rather, he believed it was possible for him to have what God had said. This is how the bible described the attitude of Abraham during those years of waiting in Rom. 4:18-20:

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘so shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

The secret is this: you must come to the point of persuasion that what you have conceived in your mind will be accomplished. Let me repeat our quote by Napoleon Hill for you: “You can be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceived and believed, the mind can achieve.”

Now, what is it that is the vision God has planted in your mind? Are you persuaded that you can accomplish it or you are already giving in to doubt and unbelief? Remember, to him who believe, all things are possible.

NOTE: Adapted from Success Principles By Jack Canfield.