Train Belief Not Fear

When I ask the senior women I coach what they want most, the answer I hear more than any other is some version of "I want to believe in myself again."

If that's you, please know I've been there. And this week, I'm sharing the teaching that changed it for me.

There's a book on my bookshelf that I've owned since 2012: my copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

The spine gave out years ago, and I've held it together with scotch tape ever since, because the handwriting in the margins is worth more to me than a clean copy would ever be.

In the chapter on faith, I added a line in my own handwriting, from Maya Angelou: "Faith is evidence of things not seen."

Here's what Napoleon Hill taught: faith is a state of mind. And it's a state of mind you can build, on purpose, through repetition. I bought this copy when I invested in coaching with Bob Proctor, who taught from this book for most of his life, and what I found in that chapter is what I've been teaching ever since.

Now, if faith is a meaningful religious word for you - wonderful. Bring all of that with you. And if it isn't, stay with me, because Hill was describing something practical about how the mind works.

Fear is also a state of mind. The doubt, the worry, the "who am I to want this" that plays in the background of even the most successful minds. And you're always training one of the two.

Every morning, you're rehearsing something. You're rehearsing the meeting going badly or the meeting going well. The only question is whether you're doing it on purpose.

I'll tell you what fear looked like for me as a Vice President, because it didn't look like fear. It looked like diligence. I was rereading the report at 11 pm, waking at 2 am with my mind already running the next day, and keeping the right answer to myself in big meetings, in case I was wrong.

That was fear, wearing a work ethic so convincing that even I couldn't tell the difference.

Here's the good news: belief is trainable, and the training has a best time of day. First thing in the morning, before you open your inbox, your mind is quiet and receptive. The same is true in the minutes before sleep. Those two windows are when what you rehearse goes in deepest, so I encourage you to protect them.

One of my clients wrote her goal on a card and read it each morning. She later shared a message I've kept: "I have read it every day. Guess what? It came true."

In my new video, I teach the complete practice, step by step, so you can start tomorrow morning in five to ten minutes.

This week's invitation: Tomorrow morning, before you pick up your phone, take five quiet minutes and picture one scene from the future you want, as if it's happening now. Then, notice what it does to how you show up during the day.