“I’ll believe it when I see it”

I generally hold an attitude of healthy scepticism.  As such, I’ve said those words quite often.

But how useful are they, really? Does the phrase serve me?

I don’t know how you feel about the Law of Attraction, but I think Wayne Dyer really hit the mark when he turned that idea on its head with this one:

"You’ll see it when you believe it"

This is about more than just the power of positive thinking and self-belief. We all interpret new evidence in ways that confirm our pre-existing beliefs, and this can be crafted into a virtuous cycle: Our vision and beliefs can be positively reinforced by what we see around us, while what we perceive to be occurring in our lives can support and reinforce that vision in a positive way.  

The upshot is that once you get clear about your goals and intentions, they’re much more likely to be realised. But it starts with belief.

Self-limiting beliefs will be some of the strongest forces in your universe, but positive belief and visualisation is just as powerful a counter-force.

The first car I owned as a teenager taught me this lesson. This isn’t a Tai Lopez-style gloat about a garage full of exotic cars (I wish).

No, this story is about a poo-brown second-hand 1972 Toyota Corona.

The internal passenger door handle on this car was really stiff, and it took quite a bit of effort to open compared to normal door handles. Whenever I had a new passenger in the car, the exchange at the end of the journey would go something like this:

1. The passenger would try the door handle and say “I can’t open this door.”
2. I would say “Yes you can, you just have to pull on the handle quite hard.”
3. The passenger would then try the door handle more firmly, and the door would open for them.
   

Think about the flow of events there. At first, my passengers couldn’t get the door open. Then I told them they could get the door open, and then they actually could get the door open.

See what's going on here? The only thing that changed in my unfortunate passengers, between when they couldn’t and when they could, was them forming the belief that they could. They didn’t suddenly get stronger, and the door handle didn’t suddenly get easier. All that changed was their belief in the outcome. That’s all it takes.

You’ll see it when you believe it.