I Think I Can

Written by: ione.nabavian.selfhelp
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010

You probably remember the story of the little red train locomotive who thought

he could.



You’ll remember that he was faced with a steep hill in his journey – much

steeper than any he had encountered before. But in spite of this, the little red

engine believed he could make it.

And so he sat on the railroad tracks, spinning his wheels and affirming and

visualizing himself cresting the hill in a puff of self confident glory……maybe a

little huffing and puffing here and there and possibly looking around for a

group hug or 2.

No – we all remember that that little engine thought he could, reversed back up

the track, took a run and almost made it. We’ll also remember that he changed

his approach a little, backed up the track again and took another run at it –

all the time chanting – “I think I can – I think I can”.

Eventually he made it.

The role of visualization and affirmation, confidence and support. Well perhaps

they played a part but the real triumph occurred because the little engine took

action in spite of the difficulties and achieved because he continued the

activities necessary to achieve.

The lesson I learned from the little red engine is that everything else is

simply a waste of time unless the necessary action is taken and maintained until

the job is done. In fact the activity can get the job done even if there is a

lack of confidence, no affirmations and no visualizations. Can you imagine

asking all of the family in the vacation car to visualize arriving at the resort

but never starting the car. Pretty soon even the dumbest kid is going to point

out the basics of physics. Everyone understands that it requires a foot on the

gas peddle and no amount of positive thinking is going to move anyone anywhere.

And so when managers ask me to work with their staff on visualization and

building confidence I always ask if the activities necessary for success have

been identified. And if so are they carried out effectively. Are they managed

and measured and repeated.
If the answer to all of those questions are positive then success becomes

inevitable.

So if you have a job in front of you – and you don’t know what to do or whether

you can get it done, break it down into small, manageable activities and start.

And simply keep going.

And nothing breeds self confidence and a desire to climb the hill again than

success.


visualization and affirmations

http://www.kevinbauer.net

Kevin Bauer

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