When It Comes to Motivation, You're Right, Either Way.

Henry Ford with Ford Model T, Buffalo, New York, 1921.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right. ~ Henry Ford.

One of my favorite quotes. Because it's absolutely true, and speaks to so many aspects of discipline, willpower, motivation, and attitude in general.

When I was a teenager, my mom bought me a book on self-talk. I assume she felt I was saying bad things to myself. Maybe I was, though compared to what my own teenagers face, I didn't really have much to be negative about. Of course, our own storm is always the worst storm, at the time. I read a chapter or two, then put it down, and got rid of it a few years later. A few years after that, once I really started to get into self-help and motivation, I wished I'd actually gotten started back with that book.

About 20 years ago, I had the realization, the acceptance, I suppose, that self-talk works. If only because it didn't. It didn't because I said it wouldn't. Therefore, I was literally proving that it was working, by making it not work.

In a broader sense, that's self-sabotage, which is a much more accepted concept.

How do you get out of your own way? You don't. You just take yourself along with you for the ride. Do what you're afraid of doing, what you believe you can't do, anyway. Think you can't because you haven't? Instead, realize you can because you haven't. You can believe your way, self-talk your way into success just as easily as you can paralysis and failure.

Start controlling your script. What you say when you wake up. What you say to others during the day, at the office, online, and as you drive. What you say in reaction to failure AND success. Take notice for a day or two how you talk now, and determine if you're speaking the outcome you want into your life.

Don't believe me? Well, you're proving the point, one way or another.

Does your team need strategies and inspiration to live their #WinAnyway Life, both professionally and personally? Let me transfer my experience, energy, and outlook by bringing me in to deliver a tailored #WinAnyway presentation. Contact me at Rich@RichHopkins.com.