How to back yourself by adopting the right attitude

​I was talking to a friend recently who has been in business for the last 3 years. We talked about his business and how it has progressed. And, it has progressed. In the 3 years that he has been in business, he has made giant strides, built a steady business and made a good name for himself. Not only has he increased the products and services that he offers to his customers; he has built business partnerships which have allowed him to expand into areas of business he hadn’t even considered when he started the business. When we talked about he keys to growing his business, he told me how it all came down to his attitude. He told me that the most important component to a successful attitude is to back yourself. If you back yourself and follow through, you will win more times than you lose, and you will never regret the risks you take.

In fact, at the end of our chat, my friend summed the right attitude up in the following way:

​It really is great advice. Too many of us wait to be certain that we will succeed before we take action on our ideas. But the truth is that there are very few instances where we can be certain that we will succeed. In most cases, we will only if we are on the right track once we start to take action. Even then, we are only really getting feedback on our progress. It usually takes quite a bit of action and time before we can really be sure as to whether we have chosen the right action. That is why it is so important to back yourself.

​Whether you back yourself in life or not is largely dictated by one of two key attitudes you may have; though you might not actually be aware of them.

​People with this attitude are reactionary. They don’t like to take a risk, so they will wait until they are confident that they can do something before they take the jump.  Before they will take a risk they often want to know:

​The problem with this is that most of these things just aren’t possible. The bigger the goal/risk, the harder it is to know what steps you ​need to take. There is more stuff that can go wrong and you are going to have to adjust your plans along the way.  

There are no guarantees in life. Especially with big goals, there are going to be many elements of the goal which are out of your control and out of the control of those who are trying to help you. The very nature of risk means that you could lose or take a step backwards as a result of taking the risk. This means that the only thing that you can guarantee is that you will give it your best shot.  

As for knowing that others have done what you are trying to achieve; it can be helpful, but you must remember that nobody has done exactly what you are trying to do. There will always be some differences and it is very easy to play on those differences to talk yourself out of taking action.

If you are in the ‘I will believe it when I see it’ camp, you are going to be hesitant to back yourself. You may attempt to fool yourself into thinking that you back yourself by making plans. But when it comes to putting those plans into action, you just ​don't back yourself by taking action.

​People who have this attitude are proactive. They don’t need to wait for certainty before they will take action. They are not afraid to take a risk. This doesn’t mean that they will take risks blindly. In fact, they will do what they can to reduce the risk, but they know that there is no growth without risk. They are quick to realise when they can’t reduce the risk any further and they immediately spring into action.

When you adopt the ‘I will see it when I believe it’ attitude, you will realise the following:

​When you take action, you get feedback. It is this feedback which allows you to identify the changes you need to make to get the result you desire. It will often take several setbacks and adjustments to get the right result.

Think of Thomas Edison who needed over a thousand attempts to create the light bulb or Colonel Sanders who needed over a thousand attempts to sell his fried chicken recipe which went on to become KFC. These men didn’t see failure as a permanent thing. They saw it as a setback and a step along the path to success. The failures were essential to their eventual success, but they never would have​ gotten anywhere if they didn’t’ back themselves. When you back yourself, you know that you will experience some failures, so you don’t fear them; you embrace them and learn from them.

When you back yourself, you are also not afraid to break new ground and take things in a new direction. Just because everybody else wants something; that doesn’t mean that they are right. Sometimes, you must go against the grain. Think of Henry Ford who said that if he had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster cars’.

​Most people live with the attitude of ‘I will believe it when I see it’. They have dreams and goals which remain unfulfilled. Despite making plans, they cannot get themselves to pull the trigger and take action on their goals. So, they settle for a life which is less than they want or deserve.

The most successful people are those who adopt the mentality of ‘I will see it when I believe it’. They trust their intuition and back themselves to create the life they really want. These people understand that although the fear of failure can be strong in the short-term; in the long-term, it is far easier to live with ‘I screwed that up’ than ‘What if I had tried?’ Because when you submit to your fear of failure, you tell yourself that you are not capable or worthy. But when you back yourself, you treat yourself with the dignity and self-respect which are so fundamental to living a happy and successful life.

​The attitude you take into life will determine the level of success you achieve. As the old saying goes, your attitude determines your altitude. And you do have the ability to choose which attitude you adopt. I have given you two key attitudes to choose from. One will see you sitting back, waiting of things to happen. Hoping that things turn out for the best. The other will see you take charge of your life, take action, learn from your mistakes and greatly increase your chances of happiness and success. The choice is yours.