Which of the following two statements do you perceive to be correct, "When I see it, I'll believe it," or "When I believe it, I will see it?" Belief plays a significant role in our success and achievement or our lack of success and achievement. For instance, Doctors know that to the extent which you believe in them and the effectiveness of their prescribed cure will be the extent to which your results will be positively or negatively impacted. Athletic coaches can also attest to the validity of the significant influence belief has on results obtained.

Be careful though, belief is a double edge sword. It can work both in your favor and against you. Sometimes what you believe can be very subtle and not consciously perceived by you. Other times it can be very obvious and overt. Ironically, sometimes those people around us have a much clearer picture of our inner beliefs by observing our words and actions. Consider the following case study:

Sally is a client of mine who has a problem with obtaining referrals. At least, that is what she told me when we first started working together. While she does her prospecting homework diligently and consistently adds a more than adequate supply of new prospects' names to her call list, she dreads making the calls. Who can blame her? It's not fun talking to strangers. So why doesn't Sally obtain more referrals?

Two reasons surfaced from our conversations; lack of belief in herself and her process and fear. Sally failed to see the value that she was delivering to her clients. After all, in her mind, she was just doing her job as a financial service professional. She was also fearful that by asking for referrals she would somehow jeopardize her good relationship with her clients. A secondary problem related to her fear issue was that she never really learned the right way to ask for referrals and therefore was fearful that her clients would not give her any referrals at all.

I suggested to her to first ask her clients if they were both satisfied and benefited from their working together. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive and heartfelt. Sally was both surprised and gratified about how positively they responded. Next, I had Sally simply ask for the names of other people, like them, who might also benefit from her ideas and her particular approach to helping people achieve their financial and protection goals.

Sally agreed to write out a script that she would use and that she would practice until it sounded natural and she was comfortable with it. She then committed to keeping a record of all of her referral attempts and results.

Sally began to see positive results in the very first week she began to use this approach. Ironically, even though she needs to continue to cold call, to fill in the activity gaps, she doesn't mind doing it as much as before. Her new found confidence and positive attitude about the value of her services has spilled over to every aspect of her financial services practice.

To summarize Sally's transformation, I would say that initially she felt she was asking for a favor from her clients and that she didn't expect or believe that they would comply with her request for referrals. Once she began to believe in herself and in the value she was delivering to her clients, she internalized the belief that she earned the right to ask for and receive referrals. Once she began believing in herself and her process, she began to see the desired results. Problem solved.

Sally's experience is but one small example of the power of belief. So what about you? What do you believe you can accomplish? Is it a vague, general idea or is it crystal clear and specific. Is it an intellectual belief, an emotional believe, or both. The more vividly you can imagine the successful outcome as already happened and actually feel the emotions released from the successful attainment of the imagined end result, the better your chances to achieve what you believe to be possible.

Good luck on your journey to success.