Thinking and Credibility

The key to success is the quality of one’s thinking. One of the main obstacles to success therefore is the state of one’s mind. In order to achieve the full potential of one’s capabilities, the mind must be guarded and consistently refreshed with insight that allows it to flourish. We’ve all heard of the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”. That’s true. We need to feed our minds with the good, the powerful and the great. I encourage you to commit to feeding your mind with good stuff on a daily basis. Find books that inspire and read them. Stock your car with motivational tapes that you can listen to while driving. Manage your mind. It is the key to your accomplishments.

I am currently reading a book that was written over 25 years ago: In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. Tom and Robert share some findings from a psychological study that really made me think. In the study, a random sample of male adults were asked to rank themselves on “the ability to get along with others”. All the subjects put themselves in the top half of the population. Sixty per cent rated themselves in the top 10 percent of the population, and a full 25 percent ever so humbly thought they were in the top 1 percent of the population.

In a parallel finding, 70 percent rated themselves in the top quartile in leadership; only 2 percent felt they were below average as leaders. At least 60 percent said they were in the top quartile of athletic ability; only 6 percent said they were below average. The truth is that we all think we are tops. Thinking of ourselves as winners is awesome. It shapes our perspective. However, it is also important to have an honest view of ourselves. That is the key to credibility. Being humble should not mean that we see ourselves as less of who we really are. Be humble and people will see you as very credible.