Whether you believe in yourself or not, the only way to start the process is to take action

Research has shown that one of the biggest determinants of whether we’ll actually try something or how long we’ll stick with it is how much we BELIEVE that we’ll be able to complete it.

When it pertains to fitness, researchers have shown that those with low self-efficacy (that’s nerd speak for little belief that they can do something) will be less likely to initiate a health-related change and/or not persist as long in attempting to achieve their desired goal.

If you think about it, this makes sense. If you don’t think you’re going to be successful at something, why would you invest our time and energy into it?

The problem, of course, is that most people have tried numerous approaches to fitness and not had any lasting success which leaves them feeling as though nothing is going to work and that they’ll never achieve their goals so they don’t even bother to start something new.

Or if they do start, they don’t persist long in the face of obstacles because they don’t really believe they’re doing to make it to the end goal anyway.

So if failure causes us not to believe in ourselves then what would cause us to start having belief?

SUCCESS.

You don’t have to start big, but you do have to start. And with each small success you’ll begin to build up that confidence that you can take on another challenge. And with each increasing challenge you start to build up a string of successes to the point where you actually start to really believe that you CAN reach your goal.

So what does this mean?

It mean that you actually have to take action BEFORE you believe. Action comes first, then comes success, then comes belief. From that stems more action and more belief. But action always has to come first.

Whether you believe in yourself or not, the only way to start the process is to take action.