In a past newsletter, Howard Ruff described how the crocodile attack that claimed the most human lives happened on February 19, 1945 when part of the Imperial Japanese Army unit guarding a stronghold on the Burmese island of Ramree was outmaneuvered by a British naval force. The Japanese soldiers were forced to cross 10 miles of mangrove swamps to rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry. The swamps were home to thousands of 15-ft saltwater crocodiles. By the next morning, only 20 of the original 1,000 Japanese soldiers had survived.

Needless to say, I was flabbergasted when I ready this story. And it led me to consider that there are numerous potential such crocodile infested waters that we must learn to traverse daily in our lives if we are to reach our goals. This led me to ask, what are the crocodiles in our lives that can prevent us from achieving our dreams?

I'd like to suggest that self limiting beliefs are in fact the biggest and the baddest of the reptilian monsters in our lives. That's because they lurk in our minds. They are thoughts that do not serve us, but yet we often find ourselves unable to escape. The average person has about 60,000 thoughts per day and I'll bet that thousand upon thousand of them fall into this category. And few of us even realize we're doing this to ourselves.

What do you suppose it takes to successfully achieve your dreams? What do you suppose it took for those 20 surviving soldiers to avoid being eaten and make their way to the other side?

In order to make it past those hungry crocodiles, you must learn to start from the end. By being larger than yourself in terms of your goals and vision, and trusting in the magic of your belief, you will learn to follow-through with unwavering persistence. When you finally reach that moment when you really, truly believe in what is possible -- well beyond what you may have previously considered -- it's magical.

So often, this is exactly what you experience with breakthrough success in a new venture (be it a home business, a new project, venture or otherwise). You started out doing what you knew you had to do because you saw an opportunity so attractive and because there may have been process that seemed logical to you.

The tipping point comes when, as the results begin manifesting, you finally believe completely in what you can do and suddenly those lingering doubts disappear. You see the progress you are making and become inspired to create a vision larger than yourself that you believe in unequivocally - and that is when everything about your progress suddenly explodes exponentially.

Imagine how impenetrable those soldiers' belief in their ability to cross the swamps must have been and the degree of doubt they had to overcome in order for them to survive. Consider the spectacle of the feeding frenzy amongst the crocodiles and how it must have looked and sounded. The degree of fear and self limiting beliefs each soldier had to overcome is astounding. And consider the degree of commitment and follow-through that was absolutely necessary to make it to the other side. Everything relied upon instant decisions and follow-through if they were to survive. There was no room for hesitation.

Just as few of the soldiers survived, so too do few people ever survive the crossing of the infested mangroves in their minds that would enable them to live out their dreams and goals. For those that do, it is because of their tremendous focus and vision, their absolute belief in that vision, and their persist without exception follow-through towards their dreams. These are the basic ingredients which can be used to determine the thoughts we choose, the beliefs we foster, and the actions we take, which of course ultimately define the path to our own success. And these ingredients are available to each of us.

There is no shortage of tremendous opportunities and enormous waves of momentum that we can ride. Opportunities are in abundance everywhere. But in order to catch a wave, each of us needs to be ready to swim out to it. And it is only through our own clarity of vision, depth of belief, and persistence that we will get there.

If 20 Japanese soldiers were able to cross 10 miles of mangrove swamps and overcome thousands of saltwater crocodiles, then it stands to reason that any of us can navigate the swamps in our minds and can achieve anything we choose to achieve.

Anything can be achieved except to the extent to which we impose limits upon ourselves.

If you begin surrounding yourself with like minded people who share the same strong sense of belief and vision as you have, pretty soon you will be able to leverage the strength and support of an entire team of people. And so there is never any reason for you to ever limit yourself.

So conquer those self limiting beliefs and start swimming!