When you adopt empowering beliefs, you can change your world and even influence the whole world, too.

When Bill Gates found out that an Albuquerque company needed BASIC software to develop a personal computer, he called them up and said he would deliver what they needed. He committed himself, then took massive action. He had a belief, an irrational one, that he could invent what he had promised to deliver. Within a few weeks, he and his partner had written up the program. They made the personal computer possible. This singular belief made him a billionaire by the time he was thirty.

His belief in what was possible, despite a complete lack of evidence, changed not only his reality, but that of the entire world.

Belief-shifting can even shatter permanent and pervasive world-views.

In 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the global and historical belief that the human body could not complete the mile in under four minutes, he changed the entire world-view about what was possible. Prior to his feat, the permanent and pervasive belief was that the laws of physics and physiology limited such an endeavor. After his feat, thinking people began to question the idea of anything labeled impossible.

After he broke the four-minute barrier, amazing things started to happen. Within a year, 37 other runners had done the same. The next year, 300 runners did it. The impossible suddenly appeared possible.

Beliefs are not necessarily true nor false, because evidence can always be marshaled in either direction. When we have experiences, both pleasurable and painful, we create generalizations on what they mean, and these then form beliefs. Yet, it is our interpretation of the experience that determined the meaning we got from it, and that, in turn influenced the generalizations that went to shape our beliefs. Someone else could have had a similar experience and interpreted it in a completely different way. In a war, one person could see all human life as worthless; another could see the sacred element in all human life; yet both are witnessing and suffering through the same carnage.

The important thing, then, is not to focus on whether a belief is true or false, but to focus on whether it is empowering or disempowering.

Here is an example:

When Marva Collins was a teacher of second-grade students in what was considered the ghetto of Chicago, she made the observation that her students did not like to learn. In fact, they actively resisted the process of expanding their little minds. This observation was in line with what the other teachers also experienced. However, her interpretation of the situation was completely different. The school district viewed the children and the neighborhood as the cause of this antipathy toward learning. Marva saw it as the result of an archaic and unstimulating learning curriculum.

She began to teach children as young as four-year-old, classic works of literature like Shakespeare. Since this upset the Chicago city school system, she had to form her own school to carry out her own curriculum. She founded a private school called Westside Preparatory School. To everyone's surprise, her young students thrived on this challenging and demanding work. Instead of becoming confused and inarticulate, their thoughts became more lucid and expressive. They became versed in the literature of ancient Greek, the revolutionary ideas of Leo Tolstoy and John Steinbeck, and other works that American culture usually reserves for college Freshmen.

Literally anything is possible for you—if you believe in it. All you have to do is believe. The act of belief will create the means to carry out your plans. The process of consistent belief will furnish the evidence to prove your belief as true. When your beliefs become a conviction, then you will move heaven and earth to achieve your objectives. And nothing and no-one can stop you.