Welcome back to the Dream Toolbox podcasts.  

How do you begin to change your belief system to redefine what you believe is possible?

A simple and effective process for doing this can begin with something as simple as a piece of paper.  Start with a blank piece of paper and give yourself 5 minutes to write down a list of all of the things you would really like to do if you knew you could not fail.   Do it quickly and don’t edit the list in your mind as you go.  Your subconscious will try to tell you, “don’t list that; it is impossible.”  List it anyway.  The purpose of the exercise is to break the habit of listening to all the negative self-talk that our brains always engage in, the kind that says, “you couldn’t possibly do that; you are too poor, or you will be discriminated against, or that is just impossible.

Once you have the list, then you can weed out those things that would be fun, but are not really important, and perhaps weed out some that are really impossible, like flying without wings (but be careful about making assumptions that are too limiting; who would have thought when the first airplane was built that space travel was possible?).  From the list that remains, you will likely have one or more potential goals that are really worth the time and effort to make them real.  That list may change with time as you change and new possibilities open up, but the process is important and worth doing over again anytime you feel “stuck” in a job or a project, or in life.

Then look through your list for those things you have always wanted to do but didn’t try because you were too afraid of failure.  Then pick one that really speaks to you as something about which you can say, “I really want to do that”.  Finally, just do it!  Either of two things will happen, both good: 

1) you will succeed and that will strengthen your belief that there is always a way to succeed, or
2) you will fail in that particular endeavor, realize that a failed project does not make you a failure, but is just a part of your learning process.

In either case, you will grow and become stronger.

In doing this, I suggest you start with things that can be achieved within a fairly short period of time?  Why?  Because you want to make your mistakes soon, learn from them, and build on that knowledge.  You also want to begin to learn what it feels like to succeed and not fear failure.

Which brings me to the topic of failure.  

In any individual project, particularly as you begin, you will probably fail one or more times.  It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you see such failures as a natural part of the road to success and events you can learn from.