Your beliefs are holding you back.

Your beliefs influence how you act every second of every day. They are the reasons for your failures and your successes. My beliefs allowed me to perform the biggest, fastest academic comeback I have ever heard of.

In Ireland, we prepare for our final exams for two years. For the first year, I did no work. I believed that school was a waste of time because I was learning much more valuable information by myself. I didn’t pay attention in class unless I had a chance to argue with my teachers and I didn’t study or do homework at all.

For the second year, I had the same beliefs, but I made the decision to use the year as practice. Practice for working hard. But for the first 7 months, I did the bare minimum. We do mock exams 7 months in, and I averaged about 50% in these. Then I decided to really work.

I had extremely strong belief in myself, belief that I could do well with only 5 months of studying. Even with those beliefs, I had a massive amount of self doubt. At times I didn’t think it was possible to even get an average result in my exams. But I persisted. I put in 8 to 10 hours of fully focused work every day for 5 months. Working to my full potential. And my grades started to increase.

I went from 50 to 60 to 70 to 80 and then got stuck on 89, but through violent effort I got over 90. When I told people this was my goal when I started, they laughed. Didn’t think it was possible for

anybody, never mind me. But I had belief.

I know that I would not have made this transformation without believing in myself. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have even tried. The huge goal made me work hard every single day because I knew I needed every hour I could get. Working on your beliefs will give you a higher return on investment than anything else. It will change the course of your life.

How exactly do you develop beliefs that serve you? Develop an ego. Every chance you get, prove to yourself that you are a hard working intelligent person. This will force you to hold yourself to a high standard.

Speak positively about yourself. Say out loud how hard you work after completing a difficult task. I had an ego for the 5 months of work, feeling that I could accomplish this massive comeback even though it was completely illogical. And all it did was help me. Think about it. I was supposed to spend two years preparing for these exams. I started with 5 months left. And I still did more work in those 5 months than 99% of my classmates did in two years.

Yes, I am bragging. But that is just to show you the power of developing positive beliefs. If you can develop strong self belief, you can accomplish anything. If you believe you can’t accomplish your biggest dreams, you’re right. If you believe you can, you’re also right.

I believe in you. So you should too.

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