If you have goals that you’ve been struggling to achieve, the missing piece may be in your thinking. Your attitude is essentially a habitual pattern of thinking. When you transform the way you think, it can change your behavior, which in turn can lead to better outcomes.

Marcus Aurelius said: “Throughout all history, wise men, teachers, prophets, philosophers have disagreed on many points. It is only this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement: A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”

To improve your performance and start making progress toward your goals, you must start by fortifying your mind: the one thing that will help you make lasting changes. Your internal biases are running the show. By activating your assets, you can develop the confidence and courage you need to take your future into your own hands and out of the control of your biases.

The reality is that the only thing you have total control over is YOU: Your thoughts and attitudes. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The ancestor of every action is thought.”

People are not victims of circumstance. To a large extent, we are each self-determining. Every day, through our thoughts, we decide whether we will cower, cope, or conquer. The consummate truth of life is that we alter our destiny by altering our thoughts. The mind is our most crucial resource, our crowning asset, our ultimate arena of battle. If we master the power of our minds, we may do or be whatsoever we will.

Albert E.N. Gray said, “The common denominator of success is that successful people have formed the habit of doing the things unsuccessful people don’t like to do.”

Read that quote over and over. Break it down — “form the habit,” “do the things unsuccessful people don’t like to do.” Note that he doesn’t say that successful people like doing those things, just that they have formed the habit of doing them. They focus on the benefit of the result, not on the discomfort of the process.

This year is the time for you to get into your growth zone. The key to a good result is a good success recipe. Learn more at Achievable.com.