There’s a fantastic podcast interview with Scott Adams (creator of the Dilbert cartoon) on Tim Ferriss’s blog from a few weeks ago. If you only listen to one podcast this year, and you only listen to the first hour of that one podcast (this one is really long), make it this one.

Scott Adams tells the story of how he worked to convince himself, through constant affirmations and self-hypnosis, that he could accomplish exactly what he wanted to achieve. As he tells it, he basically self-hypnotized himself into his current position as one of the world’s most successful cartoonists. Later, when he lost his voice for several years, he got it back by using the same technique. He claims that every time he’s used this method toward a focused goal, he’s achieved whatever the goal was.

Scott’s life is a testament to persistence and believing in yourself. Whether or not you believe that hypnosis or creative visualization can actually affect outcomes on their own, there’s a whole lot to be said for techniques such as these and their ability to help people take positive actions with confidence. Obtaining success is all about confidence and the persuasive power of confidence; whether you’re persuading yourself or others.

The greatest sales people use these powers of confidence and persuasion daily towards both good and evil ends. Donald Trump, who is also discussed in this podcast, is a master of persuading people to accept nonsense as fact and thereby get his way.

What is it that you want? How badly do you want it? Are you convinced that you can actually have it? If not, what may be stopping you is the fact that you are not convinced that you could actually (or WILL actually) achieve your goal. Take that first step, believe in yourself.

Believing in Yourself is the First Step
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