Synopsis

author：	Jerry Friedman
readBy：	Nick Wescott
inLanguage：	english

This is a list of LSAT success affirmations.

Beliefs are very powerful. When you change your beliefs, you change your behavior and thus your outcomes.

This is not some new age feel-good idea. There is solid research to back this up. I'll give you two examples. Gunder Hägg, a Swedish athlete, held the record for the one-mile run at 4:01.4, which he achieved on July 17, 1945. It took nine years for that record to be broken. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister broke that record and ran the one mile at 3:59.4. Only two months later, that record was broken, and every few years since then the record is set lower and lower. (Currently it's at 3:43.13). Can people really run faster today that they used to be able 50 or 60 years ago? There is no science to prove such a claim. Rather, when one person breaks the record, others are inspired to do so, too, because they now believe that it is possible. Before 1954, running the one mile in under four minutes was thought to be an impossible feat. Once that record was broken, others believed that it was possible, and people started doing so all the time. Physiology didn't change, but beliefs did.

The next phenomena is from the world of the circus. When a baby elephant is trained, a metal chain is placed on its neck and tied to a strong metal peg in the ground. The poor baby elephant tries again and again to escape but to no avail. After a certain amount of time, the elephant develops the correct belief that it cannot escape from the metal chain tied to the metal peg. And as soon as it gives up, the trainers switch the metal chain to a simple rope. By now the elephant is big and could easily free itself from a rope, but it believes that once there is something around its neck, there is so way it can escape.

That is the power of belief. When we believe in something, we act on it. When you start believing in yourself and your abilities to master the LSAT, you will.