We are what we believe we are.

This simple quote by C.S. Lewis holds a great deal of truth. When we believe we are something, we act it repeatedly. Eventually, by repetition, we become what we believe we are. Stop for a second and think about the last time you had to hype yourself up, convince yourself of something before you went and did it, and then actually move forward.

Everyone has those moments, whether it’s a presentation at work, a job interview, a particularly difficult play during a game, or talking to someone at a party. A friend of mine, “J”, is terrified of presentations at her workplace, yet she knows to get the better position and keep working her way up to the coveted corner office, she has to give them every other week. She spends a week preparing just her mind, and the second week preparing the PowerPoint (no death by PowerPoint for her if she wants to get noticed), speech to go with it, and then walks around practising while reminding herself that she can, and will, be awesome at this.  She stops for an after action review (AAR) after every presentation she does and asks herself if there is anything else that could make it better. Then, she builds it in. I’ve seen this process since we were in our freshman years of college together, and I’m still amazed at her dedication to this excellence while I have watched her go from a mere dream to the office next to that corner office.

In fact, along the way J. taken her presentation skills from just teaching herself how to excel in presentation as well. To be honest, they created a position just for her, and even the CEO of her fortune 500 company takes her workshops on how to be a better presenter.

We make our own confines.

Just was we define and make ourself what we believe, we also make our own confinements. Our beliefs are what limit us, not other people. When we believe we deserve something, we get it; no matter if it’s positive or negative.

This isn’t about a touchy-feely buzzword. It’s about psychology. Psychology Today notes that belief, simply defined, is something that we judge to be true. This is a beautiful phenomenon which makes us logical, irrational, emotional, stubborn, and unique as we evolve from infant to adult. As we grow and formulate opinions, become attached to not just people and places, but to ideas.

As the same article in Psychology Today notes, it’s not just a coldly rational manner that we become attached. Our brains become “intimately emotionally entangled with ideas we come to believe are true (however we came to that conclusion) and emotionally allergic to ideas we believe to be false.”

That is the power of our brains that allows us to make our own confinements as well as break down barrier after barrier to achieve excellence.

So make your walls the home of your dreams.

No matter where you are, what you’re doing, or what you’re dreaming of right now, you can make a difference in the way your confines are structured. You can start removing bricks — or rearrange them to suit your needs right now. This calls for a mind reset.

My favourite advice for this comes from Ben Fanning’s Burnout Manifesto.  Tip #4 says:

Declare War on Passivity

Fanning goes on to explain that if you replace your feeling of frustration with the mindset stating “it’s just a matter of time” your inner cynic will quiet down and you’ll start seeing more possibilities. You’ll stop feeling the burnout burn when you start believing in the possibilities and get yourself moving in a more positive direction.

In other words: stop waiting around and complaining about things. Build the skills you want, then go out and use them to create the environment in which you want to work. This is making the most of what you have in the now, building what you want, and furthering yourself instead of letting those walls get smaller and smaller. When you declare war on passivity, you take control over your destiny, call the shots, and make more of what you have in the moment. You are not just wishing for excellence and saying “someday when I have the time”. You are making the habits that make excellence right here in your now.

Featured image: Iberian cellist, photo by Kyle Hearn.