"I think I can, I think I can!" is well-intentioned but ultimately way off the mark. What actually works is "I know I can, because it's like me to do it that way."
The message of the children's story, The Little Engine That Could, is "believe in yourself". You see adults t-shirts and motivational posters proclaiming "believe in yourself." Is that really what it takes? Is that what separates the 5% of winners who do 95% of the winning from everything else?
Yes and no.
Belief is foundational. In that way the right beliefs are critical to your performance. You must have the right beliefs - about the world, about yourself, and your interaction with the world - to attain consistent peak performance.
But "I believe I can" is not certainty. When we say "I believe so" or "I believe I can", that doesn't mean 100% certainty. "I believe in myself" is not the same as "I know I can, and I trust my ability to do it". In this way, belief is just strong wishful thinking and that is nowhere close to powerful enough to vault you to peak performance against challenges, challengers and adversaries.
The mental element of performance is key. We see it most markedly at the top levels of performance, whether in sports, business, research, or anything else. The 5% who do 95% of the winning think differently from the other 95% of people. They think differently about themselves and their performance, and they nurture their thinking differently.
Yet it's more than just "mindset". Mindset in common parlance is a mixture of belief and frame of mind. Most people who "work on mindset" or are "serious about mindset" are people who constantly feed themselves motivating, empowering statements about their ability to perform and achieve at an elite level.
That's not enough because it mental performance is more than just brainwashing yourself until you believe the statements you reinforce each day. That reinforcement is useful, but it is insufficient on its own.
You need a more comprehensive view and understanding of how your mind drives and affects your performance.
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