How to Get Belief
The dictionary definition of Belief is simple enough: “an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.”
What is your dream for your life? You purchased this book because of one simple reason: You know deep down inside that there is more you want out of your life. Your days. Your weeks.
When I was 16, I was an immigrant kid born in Bangladesh and living in Queens, New York in a one-bedroom apartment with six people in all. My father worked seven days a week. My mother supported the family and the business. We all pitched in any way we could in order to achieve the American Dream and make a better life for ourselves in New York. I started working for the family business at age 12, handing out flyers for our business at the corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue -- partly because I just wanted to spend more time with my dad, and partly because I had big dreams even then for myself and my family, and I wanted to do everything that was in my power to have an impact.
I pledged to have a bigger dream as I turned 16. I pledged that I’d grind hard through my 20s so that I could get to a life where I could provide not just for myself, but also for my parents and for my future family. And no, my dream wasn’t just about living and providing, but it was to get to a life where I had the wealth to do whatever I wanted with my time, to shape the world and leave it better than I found it. I considered it not only my dream but my duty.
What is the dream for your life? Your dream could be one of these:
I am going to have control over my life and spend my time the way I want to.
I am going to spend my days working on what I love.
I am going to provide for my family so that we have more than enough.
This book is not meant to be a piece of art that sits on your bookshelf or one that just gets forgotten.
So grab a pen, and start writing into this book as you go through these chapters. This book will transform into a roadmap for your life and a physical reminder of your commitment to become Unstoppable in life.
Or perhaps you’d describe it differently. Go ahead write it down here: |
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How do you get from dreaming to true Belief? Some personal development experts would say you need to get up and scream out your dream and yell out “I BELIEVE!” That may feel energetic and fulfilling for a moment, but will it truly get your whole body to commit and believe? Probably. But will it bring you the lasting change you need to make your dream a reality? It didn’t work for me.
The quickest and fastest and most effective way I found to believe in my dreams was to seek out role models who had achieved similar dreams. I didn’t have to know them personally; I just needed to know that it's possible.
There’s something that shifts within us when we see that something is possible. For me, it always brought forward a feeling of: “Well… if HE can do it…. then I surely can pull it off…”
This led me to go through the mental process of actually articulating my dream, what it means to me, and of convincing myself that this doesn’t just have to be a dream but that it can be my reality.
When it comes to Belief, the person most known for profoundly turning a dream into reality through a strongly held belief is Roger Bannister. Bannister's legend was born on May 6, 1954, when he became the first man on this planet to run a mile in under four minutes — a feat that scientists of that day simply deemed impossible and perhaps even deadly to the human body.
It had never been done before. And this was 1954 -- man was hardly new to running at that time! And yet, within two months of Bannister’s accomplishing the first four-minute mile, John Landy and Roger Bannister each ran a four-minute mile again. Just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier again, in just a single race. In 1964, Jim Ryun became the first high-school runner to break the four-minute mile.
According to the Harvard Business Review, runners had been seriously chasing the four-minute mile record since at least 1886. After Roger Bannister, over the last half-century, more than 1,300 runners have overcome the challenge of running a mile in under four minutes -- one that had been considered hopelessly out of reach.
What changed? Did humans all of a sudden evolve quickly to become four-minute-mile runners? No. Did they cheat and use drugs to achieve new heights? No. What changed was the belief that running a four-minute mile is indeed possible. Once the limit was broken by one athlete, others thought as much as I did: “Well if ROGER can do it…” They all believed.
Belief helped me grow my career as a computer engineer. Belief helped me start my own company and grow it into a multi-million dollar business as a startup CEO at 28 years old. Belief helped me become a millionaire and achieve enough financially by my 30s so that I could provide for my family. More importantly, Belief helped me get to a point where I can spend my time on movements like Unstoppable to help people lead more proactive lives, something I am deeply passionate about. That’s the dream I had at 16.
If you want to bring lasting change into your life, you have to get serious about your beliefs. And even more importantly, you have to pause and reflect, to understand if there are conflicting beliefs in your life that are stopping you from achieving your dream.