Dave Ramsey: “We Won’t Act, If We Don’t Believe.”

Dave Ramsey breaks down a powerful truth: your life follows your thoughts. What you believe shapes what you do — and ultimately what you become. Through the story of the four-minute mile, he shows how belief can break limits. When you act with intention and plant the right seeds, you create the results you want in business and life. Want Ad-Free Episodes? Join QOD Club and hear zero ads inside our Circle community. Plus, book clubs, mentorship calls, weekly business trainings, and new likeminded friends. Get started for only $9. Source: The Power of Intentionality | Dave Ramsey | EntreLeadership Best OfHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The number one habit Stephen Covey says in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the number one habit is proactive. Proactive people, highly effective people, happen to stuff. Everything doesn't happen to them, uh, uh, happen to me. They plant stuff intentionally.

• 1:00Speaker 02

  Welcome back to the Quote of the Day Show. I am your host, Shawn Croxton, AshawnCroxton.com. We've got my main man, Dave Ramsey, on the show today. He's going to remind us that we become what we think about. If you think you can't do it, you won't be able to do it. If you believe you can and you think you can, you're going to be able to do it. So today's QOD is this: We won't act if we don't believe. Dave Ramsey's coming up.

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  You become what you think about. And here's the interesting thing.

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  You can choose. Choose what you think about. Choose.

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  With your business, choose what you're aiming at. With your leadership, choose what you're aiming at. With your team, choose, help them choose. The act of intentionality is so freaking powerful, it's unbelievable. Henry Ford said, "If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right." I am amazed at the things we don't do because we have this little tiny bit of fear that offsets all the other data and all the other evidence in our life that causes us to not go do something. Because we just don't believe.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  And it's weird, when you start to believe, you become what you think about. How many of you saw the movie or read the book Unbroken about Louis Zamparini? Louis Zamparini was a fabulous character. As usual, the book was much superior to the movie. The movie was all about Japanese prisoner of war camp. And the book was a little bit about that, but it was more about Louis and just this indomitable spirit that he had. And when Louis was in high school in Southern California, he became a track star, later moved up a national track star, and then by the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with Hitler standing there at the Berlin Olympics, he ran and medaled in the mile.

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  In that, he medaled in the Olympics and the mile speed was 4 minutes and 21 seconds, which was the standard in those days. Obviously, he medaled in the Olympics at that pace, that mile pace. 4 minutes and 21 seconds. It became part of the lore, part of the legend among the milers over the next decade, that a human being could not break the 4-minute mile barrier. It could not be done. If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. You become what you think about. People started to believe it, and lots of people ran. And finally, within just a year or two of the Berlin Olympics, a guy ran a 4-minute

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  and 1-second mile. There was one doctor that came out shortly thereafter that said, "It is physically anatomically impossible for the human body to travel at that rate of speed to break the 4-minute mile." As a matter of fact, if someone were to do that, as they crossed the finish line, their heart would explode and they would die. It's in a medical journal. People believed that that was all there was. If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. You become what you think about. 4 minutes and 1 seconds stood as the record in the mile for an unbelievable length of time, 9 years.

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  So by 1954, this had been, this was just legendary. It was just, that's all there is. And the mile was kind of boring because no one could break it. And no one believed it could be broken. Along comes a guy named Roger Bannister, who on May the 6th, 1954, crosses the line with an old stopwatch, looks like this. In 3 minutes and 57 seconds, he broke the barrier. I've always been enamored with this story. And the actual watch that was used to clock Roger Bannister came on sale at an auction in London a while back. And I'm like, oh yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  I'll raise my little paddle. I'm in, I gotta have this watch. I, you know, what's a stopwatch worth? You know, a little piece of history. Nobody cares anything about that. I was wrong. Um.

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  Little bit of a side story, but I quit bidding at 16,000. I intended to bid no more than 10. And it ended up going for over 50,000 bucks US. So they can have the watch and I'll use this as my prop.

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  $4 on eBay, shut up. All right.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  But it's been a nice prop, been a nice thing to pass on to the kids in the safe because they know this story and you become what you think about. If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. Roger breaks the four minute mile barrier. Here's what's interesting. In the next 46 days, the four minute, his record was broken 22 more times.

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  That's how powerful the human mind is. If you think you can or you think you can't.

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  You're right.

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  And I'm amazed at the number of people that the only thing holding them back to going to the next level in their business, the next level in their leadership, the next level in their marriage, the next level with their parenting, the next level in their wealth building, the only thing holding them back is they don't believe they can. Again, we have to be realistic about certain things. I told you, I'm not going to play in the NBA. I get that. I'm not one of those positive thinking guys that says it solves everything. But this is amazing.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right. You become what you think about. You see, we live in a cause and effect world, a sowing and reaping world. You are going to get a bushel of what you plant. Farmers don't plant corn and then go, where's the beans? Farmers don't plant corn and then go, why are there weeds? They know the weeds are coming, and they know if they plant nothing, that the government is not going to plant anything.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  So they know they have to plant something, because if you plant nothing, you know what you get, it's weeds. So you have to have this act in these areas of your life where you are intentional, where you happen to things, things don't happen to you. The number one habit Stephen Covey says in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the number one habit is proactive. Proactive people, highly effective people happen to stuff. Everything doesn't happen to them. Oh, it happened to me. They plant stuff intentionally.

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  And if you plant stupid,

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  you will reap desperate and broke, won't you? Been there, done that. I have planted stupid, and I got just like a bumper crop of desperate, a bumper crop of regret. You know what I'm saying? We all do some of that. But you just have to be real careful what I'm going to plant here, what I'm going to plant there, what I'm going to plant in the fertile areas of my life, because whatever I plant is going to grow. Your belief matters, because we won't act if we don't believe.

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  I mean, think about this. How many of you flew here?

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  You got on a tube with wings

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  and assumed it was going to leave the ground.

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  I mean, it wasn't that long ago that that would have been called science fiction. You got on a tube with wings and assumed it was going to leave the ground. You acted on a belief.

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  And you know, we do that in our business. When we act on a belief, we walk out on something, "That's going to occur. We're going to do what it takes for this to happen." "We're going to, we're going to plant intentionally." See, if a farmer doesn't believe, he doesn't plant. If he thinks beans are going to be, you know, a horrible crop to have next year, that the price is going to go down, then he's not going to be in the bean business. You know, if beef cattle are doing horribly, we're going to quit buying beef cattle. I mean, we all do this in every area of our life.

• 9:15Speaker 02

  That was Dave Ramsey. His website is ramseysolutions.com. You can watch today's entire talk on the YouTube. It's called "The Power of Intentionality: Dave Ramsey, Entrez Leadership: Best of." All right, my friend. Have a lovely day. See you tomorrow with Brian Tracy. Out, peace.