On the last day of the January 2014 Matrix event, I asked Bob Proctor “How many of his students wished they had his teachings when they were a kid?” and his response was not surprisingly “Everyone!”

My vision is to teach a generation of young people how to lock in on a big dream and to achieve it.

Too many children today are being hemmed in on all sides by limitations, mediocrity, poor self-image, peer pressure, and fear. In summer of 2011, I was coaching soccer for a group of young kids in southern Louisiana, and I could see the fears and lack of self-esteem holding them back. The adults that should have been their strongest supporters expected them to be mediocre. I knew that if this was happening at soccer practices, it was happening at every other extracurricular activity, in schools, and at home. It was like a flashback, because it was exactly how I had felt at their age, as my poor self-image funneled me down a path full of increasingly bad choices.

As I studied Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success, I found that a person could change their life by changing the way they looked at themselves. I said to myself, if it worked for Lincoln, Carnegie, Muhammad Ali and many others, it was certainly worth trying with the Under 12 girls I was coaching. Every training session each girl would read the same affirmation aloud at least once during practice – a habit that we would continue for 2 months. The affirmation went like this…

”I am a strong, confident and powerful woman – I need these qualities to be the best soccer player and human being I can be – I believe in myself and I will permit no one to interfere with the achievement of my dream. Whatever my mind can conceive and believe, my mind can achieve.”

Every player read this affirmation except for one player who chose not to read because of fear of embarrassing herself in front of her peers. How many of us remember being a young person and not doing what we really wanted to do because of fear? I watched these little girls who were reading, memorizing and believing this affirmation literally change their self-image right before my eyes. Their posture grew taller, they were more willing to challenge themselves, and they spoke with authority. As William James said, “Believe and your belief will create the facts!” These little girls were becoming strong, confident and powerful women. The last day of the season came around and the one girl who had been watching her teammates self-confidence rise, walked up to me and said, “Coach, I want to read today!” It was at that moment that I understood the power of affirmations. I said that if this little girl could alter her life with this one idea, how many more youngsters could benefit from this type of information. This was the start of Dream Training. Seeing that it only took one person to change my life, I made a decision that Dream Training would be that learning tool to inspire a generation of young people to find their place in the world. This is a perfect way for a teacher, coach, mentor and parent to introduce success principles to a young person.

Colin Gilmartin

Colin is the author of the newly released Dream Training – A Practical Guide for Today’s Youth to Achieve Their Dreams. The book has already hit #1 in two children’s categories. Check it out by going here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011WGI53E or visit Colin’s website at: www.dreamtrainingbook.com