In March of this year I visited the beautiful country that is Costa Rica . I had paid to spend a week at a health retreat. I was then going to spend a few months living and working in Latin America. However, a few days into my adventure, disaster struck. COVID was spreading rampantly over the world and had reached Costa Rica. The retreat was ordered to close and all guests were being advised to leave the country and go home as soon as possible.

At first I wasn’t concerned, however the more I spoke to people the more I realized the seriousness of the situation. People were panicking, airports in the country were closing down and hotels/ shops were closing by the hour. It dawned to me that I might end up stuck thousands of miles from home, in a country where I knew no one, didn’t speak the local language, had no fixed accommodation and was  gripped in the middle of a pandemic that hadn’t been experienced before. I tried getting out but was having flights cancel on me last minute and nearby countries rapidly  closing their borders .

Despite all this I refused to panic. I had encountered many sticky situations in my life (especially when travelling) and always seemed to find away out. It was this belief in Myself and in finding a solution that kept me going to explore all avenues. To cut a very long story short I managed to get on a flight home arranged by the British Consulate. Even getting home on this flight was another story in itself (I’ll save that for another blog)

The whole experience reminded me of the power of belief and in particular of self belief. If you look throughout history people have moved mountains because they believed in a cause, situation and themselves. From Martin Luther King leading the Civil Rights movement, the Wright Brothers getting the plane to fly or Roger Bannister completing the seemingly impossible and running a mile in under 4 minutes. It’s these people’s tremendous self belief that created magic to happen

We don’t need to always look at extreme examples of achievement to understand the importance of belief. We can use it in our day to day  lives. We can push those doubts and aim higher just by believing it can happen and that we can make it happen. Crushing our quarterly sales targets. achieving our body fat percentage goal, meeting our dream partner can all be achieved. However you must first truly believe that you can achieve them

A client of mine stated their goal of doubling their sales revenue and their salary within 12 months . After asking them a few questions around this, my conclusion was that they would not achieve it. Not because of their lack of ability or that it was too unrealistic a goal to achieve. But purely because I didn’t feel that they actually believed they could achieve it themselves. I then preceded to work on their belief levels before even delving into a strategy to attain their goal. Every goal must start with your belief. It’s the ultimate foundation for success

This can also work when working with others. Make sure your teams truly believe they can hit the targets that have been set and are not just paying lip service when they say they will achieve them

The good news is that you are not born with belief. It is something you can proactively develop and consistently work on . So next time your aiming low in life or your trying to achieve your dreams, make sure you work on your belief levels before you take any steps further. You owe it to Yourself. Keep believing

What do you do to boost your self belief? I’d love to hear your tips in the comments section.