How to become unstoppable.

There's a very simple yet powerful message that's a fundamental part of almost every effective self-help programme. It's delivered in many different ways, sometimes openly and sometimes subtly, but it's always the same and without it all the other wisdom is useless. The message is that we must have enough desire and enough belief, we must want it and we must believe we can have it.

You'd think it goes without saying, especially the wanting part, but it's amazing how few people actually have enough desire or belief to achieve their goals. It's not difficult to do, we just have to accept the need to do it but that's not as simple as it sounds.

Accepting the need.

We're all perfectly capable of having any physique we like. What holds us back is lack of desire and belief, not our capabilities. And you don't have to take my word for it, it can be proved with one simple scenario. Imagine that the person you love most in the world, your child or spouse perhaps, would die if you ever ate more than 1500 calories in a day. It's an unpleasant thought but it's a good way of proving that, with enough desire, we can achieve anything. In this case the belief is also there instantly, youknowyou'll never go over the 1500 calories because youknowyou'll do whatever it takes to save your loved one.

See how desire and belief make us unstoppable? See how vital they are to success? Once we've accepted these truths we can move on to developing them to the necessary levels. The trick here is to realise what many self-help programmes don't tell you, something else that scenario teaches us, that the two go hand in hand and that they can be developed in such a way that they can be programmed to feed off each other and grow almost automatically.

Desire follows belief.

Here's another, more familiar scenario. A group of young men go out socially together, they all like their cars. One of them raises the bar a bit and buys himself a Porsche. Suddenly the othersreallywant a Porsche (or something similar.) What do we think is driving their desire? Jealousy? Well, maybe a little but there's a far greater force at work -belief.Suddenly owning a Porsche isn't something a different kind of person does, their friend has proved that, it's now believable thattheycould own one too. And with the belief comes strong desire. We don't reallywantthings we're certain we can't have. Housewives may dream of a date with George Clooney but you don't hear anyone saying, "Ooh, Ireallywant George Clooney to take me to The Café de Paris in Monaco." It would be lovely but they don't actuallywantit because they know it's not going to happen. It's only when webelievesomething to be possible that we can really start to want it.

Belief follows desire.

We've already established, using the uncomfortable hypothesis that a loved one would die if we didn't succeed, that we can do anything that's physically possible given the right level of desire. The desire creates the belief. And what comes from belief? More desire, and round and round it goes getting stronger and stronger until we're certain to succeed. We'reunstoppablebecause all doubt has been removed. It's no longer a question ofifwe'll do what's necessary to reach our goal. It's coming, as sure as day follows night.

Start to look forward to the surprise on people's faces and the things they'll say. Imagine lifting that garment off the rail and smiling at the size label or sinking into those new leather seats. Practice a contented little grin. Youknowit's all coming and you reallywantit.

Don McCarron.