Believing...
If you can believe it, you can achieve it. PERIOD. You can read all the motivational quotes and listen to all the motivational speakers you want, but if you do not BELIEVE, then it’s pretty pointless. The problem is that most of us lack belief. And when I talk about belief, I talk about it from a practical point of view. I’m not talking about hope or faith. I don’t believe that you can "hope" for the best, sit back and wait until good things happen to you. Like it or not, but everything that’s floating in that head of yours, is there because you believe it. "Life sucks." "I’m not good at my job." "I can never find my dream job." "No one loves me." "I will never become successful." See? It’s all there because you believe those things. William James, one of the primary figures associated with pragmatism, put it best: "Belief will help create the fact." Belief is a practical instrument that you can use to shape reality. Have you ever considered that you decide what you believe? Not your friends, colleagues, family, or even the media.You observe things, and then decide what you believe. That’s why belief creates facts. You will never become a respectable leader without putting in the work.Your life will never change unless you take action. But that’s not the point. You know there’s no outcome without action. It comes down to one thing: Do you believe that you can, or can’t live the life you want? It’s one thing to say that you believe something. It’s a whole different thing to actually believe.
A lot of people say they’ve made important life decisions based on fear. Do you hate your job, but are you afraid to look for something else because you might lose your house? Do you want to leave your spouse, but are you afraid you’ll die alone? Do you study yourself to death because you’re afraid of what your parents will say when you quit? I always wanted to become a writer. I loved to read and enjoyed putting my thoughts on paper. But no, every adult in my life was trying to scare me to death. "You can’t make a living as a writer." They were probably right. It’s not easy to make a living by writing. So what? Everything that’s worth it is hard. I didn’t realize that back then. So I gave up my goal. I decided to pick the safe road and pursue a degree in professions I thought would make me more money. I don’t regret that decision because I’ve learned many useful things. But the whole experience turned me into a fearful creature. I eventually stopped believing in myself. I stopped writing and reading. And that’s a pure waste of time that I could’ve used for practicing my skills. And I’ll say this a lot, but suffering a loss changes you. And you can either let it get you down or turn the loss into something greater. Losing my great grandmother lit a fire in me. It completely changed my own way of thinking.
And one of the many realizations I had is that not believing in yourself is useless. So I decided to believe that I could live the life I wanted. Granted, I’m not a writer or anything lol, but I do journal a lot more and read, two things I told myself were a MUST I get back into. Maybe I can do writing on the side? Maybe I can write a book as a MSW..sky’s the limit. Believing in yourself is very simple. You can do it too. Just understand that belief is an instrument. That idea is not new or anything. It’s been around for hundreds of years. People just have different names for it. I don’t care how you call it. But guess what happened since I’ve been using belief as an instrument? Most things I believed are facts now. And the other stuff I believe will one day become a fact. How am I so certain? Because my mind can conceive it. And if your mind can conceive it, you can achieve it. That’s not a motivational quote. That’s a fact.
