Please enjoy this guest post from author Ian Lock

IAN LOCK on the importance of Self Belief…

How can self belief help you to be Extraordinary?

As we move into 2013, I find myself thinking a lot about the power of self belief. Our self belief impacts upon everything that we are and everything that we do. People with true self belief can go anywhere and do anything. People with false self belief, or bravado, often just pretend they can.

Can you remember a time when you truly believed in yourself, felt good about who you were and what you could do? A time when you felt really positive? Even if it was only for a brief moment, can you remember how you felt and what you believed?

For me one of those times was when my daughter, Imogen, was born. I remember standing in the hospital room at around 2.30 am holding this precious little bundle in my arms and looking out across the skyline. I had an enormous sense of well being and purpose. I felt ready to face into the rest of my life and create possibilities for me and my family. I believed that I had reached a point where I was ready to be me and that I could truly change the world. At that very moment nothing was impossible. That memory still fills me with the same positivity 12 years on and at some of my most difficult times since, I have used it to sustain me. I often ask myself what that version of me, at that time in my life, with positivity and self belief, would do today.

Positivity and Self Belief says: This is the life I’m living. This is the life I want to be living. Here are some obstacles that are getting in the way. Let’s figure out how I’m going to get around them!

Negativity and Lack of Self Belief says: This is me. I am stuck. Here are all the reasons why I can’t change…

The difference between us feeling powerful and powerless is all about our self belief. Believing in yourself doesn’t guarantee that you will always succeed – but your energy will be different, how you feel will be different, your ability to handle everything that happens in your life will be different.

Think back to a day or a time when you felt great and had real self belief.

What did it feel like and how did you behave?

What was possible?

What could you do today with that feeling to make your life Extraordinary?

Ian Lock is a leadership development consultant and author of Being Extraordinary: How to Live Life on Purpose (Live It; 3 Jan). For a free download, join the Being Extraordinary community here.