How hard will you work to reach a goal if in your heart you don’t expect to achieve it?

This is the simple but great challenge that all of our dreams face—expecting that you can do whatever it is that you want in the face of people pointing out the obstacles or inadequacies, previous personal experiences, and numerous examples of failure.

In your heart and gut, you have to know that you can do it no matter what. And when you do fall into fear and doubt, you have to get back up and move towards that inner belief anyway.

Doubt is the distance your mind must travel in order to be able to reach your goals. If it dictates your decisions, there will always be a part of you holding back, which means you will almost certainly fall short of the mark.

But how do you mentally move from doubt to expectation?

Slowly, gently, and one step at a time. Taking a flying leap of faith without the wings of inner knowing is often ill-advised, and can lead to false starts or worse, a crash landing.

Here are five tips for crossing from doubt to expectation.

1. Practice how it will feel. Imagine how it will feel to achieve your goal. Pick one word to describe that feeling. What are some other things that give you that feeling? Spend 10 to 15 minutes a day thinking about those things and feeling that feeling. Allowing yourself to experience the feeling of success as much as possible will confirm for your mind that the end result is attainable.
2. Act as if. How would someone who has already achieved your goal think, feel, and act? Begin to act as if it is already done. Again, this helps your mind move towards belief.
3. Count the tiny steps of success. Break down your goal into tiny steps. Take at least one step each day that makes you feel like you’re making progress. Instead of focusing on how tiny the steps are, focus on the progress you are making. As the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
4. Look for positive examples. Chances are that somewhere there is someone who is doing what you want to do. Look for the examples that inspire you and help convince you that your dream is possible. Ignore the other examples as irrelevant. They aren’t you and they don’t know what you know.
5. Appreciate where you are. There is no better antidote to doubt than gratitude and appreciation. Stopping to appreciate where you are reminds you that life is lived in the journey, not in the few moments experienced when you reach your destination.

What can you do today to nurture your expectation of success? How does this impact your ability and desire to move towards your goals? What does your belief say about the distance your mind needs to travel to help you create the life of your dreams?

Together we can do it!