A more frightening seminar test was breaking an arrow whose point was lodged in throat. A board was held tightly against other end of arrow and seminar attendees were encouraged to take one step forward boldly and in a state of belief that arrow would break and not penetrate their throats!

Again, when it was my turn, I did not have any particular belief in my mind (apart from thinking that I was an idiot for doing this) but stepped forward anyway. Mercifully arrow broke. Belief was not essential; doing it anyway was all that was necessary.

Many business men and women attend these seminars because they or their bosses have realised how important belief is both in life and in business. Hopefully they will learn to believe in themselves but if they do not they may, like me, learn power of doing it anyway.

Another solution (apart from going ahead anyway) is to understand why people might have put you down in past. If someone called you a weakling in past, they may well have been trying to make themselves feel stronger at your expense. A really strong person will encourage others to become strong.

Someone who is a failure does not like idea that someone they know will do better than themselves. They will tell you that you are wasting your time if you try to improve yourself. If you leave rat race and start your own business, you become an instant target for sceptics and critics.

I remember being called a big head at school when I moved up a form into a class where everyone was one year older than me. Some of class could not bear to think that someone was doing better than they were. As a result of criticism I stopped working hard for a couple of years and was fortunate to pass exams.

Another solution to problem of lack of belief is to repeat a positive belief at speed so that doubts do not have a chance to take hold. Dave O'Connor of Educo has a series of exercises which develop this kind of instant belief.

Try this one. Stand with your eyes shut and your hands down by your sides. Start saying at speed something like this: "My right arm is attached to a helium balloon. The balloon is rising into air pulling my arm upwards with it. My arm is going up, up, up, higher and higher, up, up, up. The more I resist, higher it goes. Higher and higher, up, up etc."

See what happens! Usually at Dave's seminars, most people's hands do go up. There is always someone, however, who is thinking thoughts like: "This is silly. The man's gone mad!" The hands of such people stay down! Too many doubts have been allowed to nest in their minds.

Once you get good at controlling your thoughts and beliefs through exercises like one above, you can apply power of belief to every activity in your life including business and start creating success. You can learn to shut out negative thoughts and focus on positive ones.

This evening I watched a property developer working on a house in a TV program. She was accompanied throughout by an 'expert' who criticised her every move. The expert thought bath was too big for bathroom. She thought house had been customised too much in style of developer.

She thought developer was way over budget and would never make a profit. She thought developer would have trouble selling house at £145,000. The developer thought it would go for £150,000. Five weeks later house sold for £150,000.

The developer had believed in her own abilities and instincts despite views of several estate agents and one very negative 'expert'.

We can then overcome our lack of belief by: Going ahead anyway even without any belief and by understanding why some people will try to undermine our belief in ourselves. A third way is by cramming our minds with positive statements and ignoring negative criticism from within or without.

John Watson www.motivationtoday.com