Where does success start first?

Recently I had a chance to talk to a primary school boy.
He was a smart kids, street smart I would say.
He has very good memory and he can predict what you gonna tell him rather fast.
By right, he should be doing well in whatever he does, right?

Yes, if he choose to believe he can first.
Unfortunately, when he showed me his recent exam results, he is far from being happy on what he had gotten.
Even though he is smarter than his elder brother, however, the results he delivered is far behind from his elder brother.

In fact, this little boy has spent more effort for his study lately.

While I have to spend some time to console him. I found something vital for this kid and probably most children.

This boy has a self-image of not being good enough and some how develop the habit of giving up too early.

I may not be sure how exactly he developed this self-image or habit.
My good guess will be the environment he was brought up or somebody of authority probably has told him something "not good enough" in his younger day.

Of course, his habit of reinforcing the non-supporting belief is not doing him any good.  Naturally, whatever he  studies, he will think it is hard.  Even though he has good memory, he tends to forget the things he studied, especially the subject he doesn't like.

Consequently, he will reinforce his non-supporting beliefs, especially the subject he thinks is hard.
The vicious cycle continues.

Of course, I taught him a simple trick to break the habit of non-supporting beliefs. Initially he was reluctant to do it because it sounds stupid to him, but I persisted.
Within, 10 minutes, it showed result to him on his fearful subject instantaneously, Chinese Language.  His confidence went up significantly and his body language told me that he felt good about himself.  Of course, his learnt all the difficult words within 15min.

He may think that is some special learning techniques.
However, it is just my method to help him break the non-supportive beliefs, refocus his attention on his success.  (In my previous post, I mentioned about success breeds success)

From this short experience, I realized that success needs to come from the mind and heart first.

Many people was looking for "The Secret" or "keys" to success, whether in academic, career, relationship, health or weight management.  No doubt that the know-how is important. However, having a supportive self-beliefs is far more important.  It is what we say to ourselves daily that matters.

I call it having the "heart and mind" to be successful first.