The title of this article comes from a quote by Napoleon Hill. For those who aren’t familiar with that name, Hill is author of one of the best-selling books of all time “Think & Grow Rich.” He is widely considered as being one of the greatest writers in the area of personal development.

The brain has a hard time distinguishing between what’s real and what is imagined. An often quoted study is that of basketball players being split up into 3 groups; one group were told to practice shooting free throws 20 minutes per day, the next were told to spend 20 minutes only visualizing, but not attempting free throws, and the final group were told to do neither.

Remarkably at the end of the study the players who only visualized shooting and the players who actually practiced shooting showed equal but marked levels of improvement. Whereas, the group who did neither did not improve.

This is a prime example of how our thinking shapes our future. The first time we have a new thought it is weak but over time as we keep on thinking the same thought it grows in strength and we start to believe it more. Don’t believe me? Well, think about something you are scared of; you are only scared of it because over time you have reinforced the thought that you are scared, and now your mind has started to believe you, therefore you act accordingly.

Everyone has seen those interviews from sportsmen who having just won the Superbowl, the World Series or the World Cup say that they used to picture themselves catching the game winning touchdown, striking out the final batter or scoring the winning goal.

These sportsmen conditioned themselves to believe that their moment was going to come and they were going to succeed just as they pictured.

When you begin to believe that what you want is possible, your brain will take over the job of accomplishing that possibility for you. Furthermore, your brain will actually expect to achieve that outcome.

Take former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw as an example when he won the World Series exactly as he had planned it.

“It was as if I’d been there a thousand times before. When I was growing up, I would pitch to my father in the backyard. We would always get to the bottom of the ninth in the World Series with two outs and three men on base. I would always bear down and strike them out.”

You might think that McGraw was psychic for his prediction but the truth is that Whatever The Mind Can Conceive & Believe, It Can Achieve.

the Choice of What to Believe Is Up to You.