The SUCCESS 6 Formula - Power of Excellence

Success

 Power of Excellence 

He can who thinks he can, he can’t who thinks he can’t.”

 — Pablo Piccaso, artist

“Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’ll be right.”

— Henry Ford, industrialist

Success — and failure — begins in the mind. With mind power, you can do all sorts of fantastic things — climb mountains, run marathons, lose weight, recover from illness . . . and pass your exams with flying colors.

What are the chances of success if you set out to do something, even if it is something you have never done before? The answer may surprise you. According to research by psychoanalyst Karen Horney, people who embark on new tasks succeed 95 percent of the time!

The trouble is, most people do not even try and they think they failed. But this failure is not real. How can you fail at something that you did not do?  

Pygmalion effect

In some instances, such as in teacher-student relationships, even how other people think of you can affect your performance. If they believe you will do well, chances are you will. And if they think you will do badly, chances are you also will. This is the Pygmalion Effect, named after a book, Pygmalion in the Classroom, by Robert Rosenthal, a professor of social psychology, and Lenore Jacobson.

In a 1968 study, the two Harvard researchers made a group of students sit for an IQ test and then told teachers that 20 percent of them showed great potential for intellectual development. In reality, the students were chosen randomly. But because their teachers were led to believe that they were intellectually superior, these students significantly improved their scores when they sat for a second IQ test eight months later.

What can you do about the Pygmalion Effect? First, try your best to create a positive image of yourself. If you cannot show that you are smart, at least show that you are sincere about wanting to learn.

Second, avoid a negative image. Do not misbehave or sleep in class, do not hand in your assignments late and so on. Otherwise, you will need to work doubly hard to change your teachers’ view of you.

Self-talk

Our mind can be considered a “separate person” and we often talk to ourselves. Most of us do it silently, but some people do it aloud and are considered “mad”. Yet, it is very natural to talk to ourselves. 

What do you talk to yourself about? What do you keep telling yourself, day after day?

Some people tell themselves that they are bad with numbers, or bad at remembering facts. This is their “self-talk”. For most people, self-talk tends to be negative. For some, it can get really bad, like “I can never succeed at anything” or “I always fail no matter how hard I try.” 

If you have a lot of negative self-talk, you need to change this. Start with small changes. Instead of saying “I can never succeed”, change it to “I can succeed if I set a lower target” or “I can find someone to help me.”

And why not? If some people can get 100 marks for Mathematics, why can’t you get 70 or 80? If some people can learn six languages, why can’t you learn two? If some students can score 10 A’s, why can’t you score at least 10 B’s? Why must you fail?

Author

-George Tan