Sunday, January 1, 2012

Power of Self-Belief

I truly believe human’s greatest super power is the ability to believe in oneself. I’ll prove my point by using one of my favorite moments in sport history.

It was the 1980 Winter Olympics and it was predicted by everyone that the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team would be crushed – slaughtered – destroyed by the Russian Hockey Super Power. In fact, just a few weeks before the Olympics the US Men’s Hockey Team played the Russians and lost 10-3! 

At the Olympics, in a stadium packed full of thousands of people, Herb Brooks-Head Coach said this to his U.S. players moments before they took the ice to play against the superior Russian Team:

“If we play ‘em 10 times, they might win nine. But NOT this game. Tonight we are the greatest team in the world. This is your time! Now go out there and take it!” Herb Brooks Foundation

Against all odds and all critics the US Team beat the Russians and went on to win the Olympic Gold Medal. The event was perfectly dubbed, a miracle on ice because it was a miracle! The US team was not as skilled, not as talented, and not as successful as the Russians. So you have to ask, how was it possible?

Simple, they believed – they tapped into the greatest super power humans have: self-belief. Just for one night, these 20 extraordinary U.S. hockey players believed they were capable of beating the Russians – they believed in something no one else thought was possible.

So for the month of January 2012 I leave this blog post for you to think about.

There are a lot of impossible feats we as a global society, a nation, a city, a town, an individual must achieve, but unless we believe we are capable of extraordinary events there is no hope for success – for miracles. 

I know that even when we believe sometimes we still come up short of our goals, our dreams.  But, I promise you this – you will have a far greater chance of success and happiness if you do believe in yourself. There is no greater misery than self-doubt.

To view Sarah's middle grade fiction book click here: Paperback and Kindle 

1 comment:

Jen Forbus said...

Hi Sarah! Nice to see you've started a blog.