Read this and you will feel better about yourself-which is often the first step to success in life.

Maybe today you are struggling in one or two areas of your life. Your marriage is strained. Your business is struggling. You can’t seem to lose the weight. You just don’t have friends.

Good news: You’re better than you think you are.

Most of us tend to be a little short-sighted. When we struggle in one area, we focus on the area of struggle and we lose perspective.

In this spiral we often begin to see ourselves as being defined by our failures and struggles rather than by our strengths and successes. The more our inner voices tell us about all the times we’ve failed, the less likely we will be to succeed in any area of life.

Once you turn that cycle around and begin focusing on your successes and strengths, you also increase your success in every area of life.

People who expect to succeed, succeed. People who expect to fail, fail.

How can you change this cycle? Take five minutes and do this exercise:

First, take out a sheet of paper and honestly answer the following questions, refusing to put down anything negative about yourself or your performance:

1. What difficult thing have I accomplished already in my life?
2. While I may not be good at everything, what is one thing I am consistently good at?
3. What is one thing I can do to give me a small success today?