DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU?

By: Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame

We have the wrong psychology about kids today. We think if we give them everything, they'll love us. Not so. Young people only love their parents when their parents challenge them. A kid without a dream is a kid without purpose, without challenge, without hope, without anything. And he'll turn to hate.

Everyone wants to be motivated. Everyone wants to hope for something. That's when you discover your capacity.

Johnnie Wesmueller, the great "Tarzan of the Apes" guy from the movies, set 53 American records, 17 world records and God knows how many gold medals in the Olympics. One sports writer called Wesmueller "super" phenomena. "No one will ever beat Johnnie Wiesmueller."

Wesmueller was 6'-1", the perfect leverage- 190 pounds. "Tarzan of the Apes." To show you the capacity of humans, guess who is breaking Johnny Wesmueller's records today? Thirteen-year-old girls! And sports writers said no one would ever beat him.

Coach Brutus Hamilton, a great track and field coach from California, once wrote a "Blue Book" and in the "Blue Book" he stated: "These are the maximums. No one will ever exceed these records. This is how high a man can jump. This is how fast he can run. This is how far he can throw. This is how strong he can be." Hardly a year went by before every single "so called" maximum had been broken.

We don't really know the capacity of a human being. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to speak to thousands of audiences in some 25 countries. I have been a student of human behavior and I never cease to be amazed by what I have learned and seen in others. Some one recently asked me how many records will fall in the next Olympic games? I suspect all of them might have a good chance.

My son Jason is at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan trying to make the U.S. Olympic Team in the sport of weightlifting. He is working on his graduate degree in Molecular Microbiology, which is more important to him than making the Olympic Team. Jason tells me the difference between the best lifter in the world and the fifth best is less than a kilo of weight. In other words, the difference between a Gold Medal and not even making it to the Olympics is miniscule. That's how competitive it is at that level.

In the sports world, records fall. In the business world, records collapse. In the scientific world, cures are commonplace. Medical science has extended life expectance so fast that they can't keep the actuarial tables current. The good news is we're living longer; the bad news is we're living longer.

That's why records fall. That's why a would-be entrepreneur like Henry Ford built a conglomerate and that's why Dr. Jonas Salk invented the vaccine that would affect the lives of millions all over the world.

What is our real capacity? We don't really know. One of the reasons is we are conditioned by other things to believe the human being is limited. We are so behaviorist in our concepts that we cannot even visualize the capacity of a human person. How great could you be? Napoleon Hill once wrote "whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe he can achieve."

Do you believe in you?