The power of belief. Over the last five years my mother has been battling lung cancer, beating it twice, to only have it come back a third time. I still remember the first time I flew home for the surgery as they were going to go in and cut out of the infected portion of her lung to avoid chemotherapy or radiation.
I vividly remember her lying in the hospital bed, being provided medicine to put her under, and holding her hand as she drifted off. She was so nervous for what the future might hold, and so scared at the thought of leaving her three boys, grand kids, and husband behind.
Fast-forward to today and she’s still battling cancer for the third time. They’ve told us that it’s terminal cancer and despite a year of chemotherapy that led to a streamlined haircut that she absolutely hates, more bad days than good, she continues to maintain optimistic.
From my perspective, even more impressive is the fact that she continues to fight, as she truly believes she can beat cancer.
Within the last six months she’s since been removed from chemotherapy, as it was no longer effective, and has since been moved on to a new treatment that was just recently approved by the FDA.
She’s on a daily regime of pills that would make most of us want to give up, yet she continues to go through the monotonous motions every single day. Over the past few months I’ve began to have what I would call “real talk” conversations with her. I’ve told her to get off the medicine, create a better quality of life for herself and travel.
We’ve had numerous conversations about her traveling to places she’s always wanted to see, creating memories that will forever live with her.
Understandably, that’s not an easy conversation to have with anyone, let alone your mom. During our weekly calls it always seems that there are more bad days than good, as the treatment continues to takes it toll, yet despite my pleas with her, her unwillingness to succumb to this disease never wavers. She’s literally not ready to give up. She’ll get to see her only granddaughter walk down the aisle in a few weeks to get married, and she still has hopes of someday seeing me walk down that aisle, or even provide her with another grandkid.
Her belief that she can and will beat cancer provides her with the strength and courage to continue to fight every single day.
At this point you might be asking yourself, although a touching story, what does this have to do with sports, sales, or being a professional? My answer….everything. Belief is a powerful entity that can overcome almost any obstacle, yet it lives solely in our mind. Working in sports, you’re constantly faced with selling and providing a product where you can’t control the outcome.
You literally have zero impact on the end result, and regardless if it’s just one loss or a losing record for the season, your job is to come in the next day and believe. And if you’re in management, your job is to create a purpose that everyone can get behind and believe in. Selling a non-tangible product, such as an idea or purpose, requires belief before anything else.
Without belief it’s absolutely impossible for any campaign to become a success.
Although I read the following quote from Napoleon Hill well before my mom was diagnosed with cancer, “Anything the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”, it took my mother showcasing her strength over the last five years for me to really understand and harness the power of belief.
- If you want to achieve something, first you have to believe you can achieve that desired result.
- If you want to overcome the challenges and obstacles that have been placed in your world, find a way to believe that you possess the strength to overcome.
- If you’re looking to achieve something that has never been done before, then your first step is to visualize what success will look like and believe you can accomplish said goal.
After watching my mom go through her treatments and deal with cancer the way she has over the last five years, there isn’t a doubt in my mind surrounding the power and impact belief can provide.
I challenge you to filter the information that reaches your mind the same way you would monitor a diet.
Only expose yourself to positive thoughts, and suddenly you’ll notice yourself complaining less and being more optimistic regardless of the circumstance. Start to write your beliefs down, just like you would with your goals, and suddenly you’ll start to see yourself achieving things that were only ideas a few short months ago.
Belief is powerful, and as of last Tuesday I am happy to report that my mother’s CAT scan came back stating that the treatment is working, the cancer is shrinking, and there is no doubt that her belief has played a pivotal role. Phenomenal thing about belief…anyone can have it and it’s absolutely free.
