“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.”
– Voltaire
Faith is a byproduct of self-confidence. I believe self-confidence and faith are attributes we are all born with. However, they are suppressed through constant societal conditioning. If you were to turn on the news right now, chances are you would hear about something really bad going on somewhere in the world. When you’re a kid, you’re told to “be careful” by your mother before you step out of the house. You’re constantly reminded by family members and loved ones that money is scarce, and in order to feel security you will one day need a full-time job. Everything is a “risk.” The only way to make it in this world is to live within your comfort zone, and subscribe to a life of mediocrity. How are we supposed to develop self-confidence in conditions like this? Let me tell you, it’s not easy. However, there is a methodical way to unearth your buried self-confidence, and get in touch with a powerful faith you never knew existed.
Have you ever wondered how people like Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, and MLK, Jr. achieved greatness? What sets these people apart? I believe everyone has their share of God-given talents, hardships (some more than others), and shortcomings. There must be a reason other than the usual, “Oh, they’re just lucky” to explain why the legendary figures listed above rose to the top of society and others with similar levels of brilliance didn’t.
I’d like to suggest that the only difference between you and these individuals is your levels of courage, self-confidence, and faith. Consciously or unconsciously, these people developed their courage by stepping outside of their comfort zone, thereby building their self-confidence, which ultimately led to their unwavering faith.
Courage is critical
Before you can develop self-confidence, you need to get a good idea of what you’re capable of. How do you do this? You step outside of your comfort zone, and stepping outside of your comfort zone requires courage.
It requires the courage to ask penetrating questions so you can take a deeper look at yourself.
It requires the courage to get past your pride, and realize your life isn’t everything you know it could be.
It requires the courage to identify your purpose in life, and then take action on it.
It requires the courage to say, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to make my dreams a reality!”
Know thyself
I have been questioning my true nature for the last two years of my life, and figuring out the answers to my questions has given me a tremendous amount of self-confidence. The penetrating questions I’ve been asking myself consistently are:
What do I truly believe?
How do these beliefs show up in my day-to-day actions?
How do these beliefs limit me from reaching my true potential?
What are my deepest values?
Which values do I need to prioritize in my life?
What should I be doing with my life?
What am I really good at, and how can I use this talent to my advantage?
Is what I’m doing right now what I would be doing if money was not an issue?
What do I love to do?
What are my character flaws, and how can I improve upon them?
Am I thinking for myself? Or am I living a life that is the result of others’ thinking?
How is pride standing in my way of self-realization?
What lies about my reality have I been trying to convince myself are true?
If you ponder these questions long enough, and are brutally honest with yourself, you will come to realize the life you’re leading may be incongruent with whom you really are. At first this will be frightening, because up until this point of clarity, you’ve been living a life of deception. You’ve been deceiving yourself. This realization is actually a great thing, because you now have the power to line up your actions with your core self. You will be able to proactively mold your character to fit your values. You will know what’s really important to you in life, and you will be able to prioritize your actions accordingly. You will identify limiting beliefs, uproot them, and as a result, you will begin to tap into your true potential.
Knowing who you are at your core is the key to self-confidence. Only when you know yourself do you truly begin to grasp how powerful you really are. And this understanding gives way to unwavering faith.
Unwavering faith
Faith is highly dependent on your level of self-confidence. Without self-confidence, how can you trust yourself to make the critical decisions in life, the choices which will ultimately determine your results? Once you’ve gotten in touch with your inner-self, faith will come easily to you. Believing in yourself will become second nature. Fear will just be an illusion you walk through, because you will know deep down what you want out of life. And nothing is going to stop you from getting it. To illustrate what I mean, here’s an example from my own life.
Making the decision to drop out of school was easy because I have a tremendous amount of faith. This faith comes from knowing what I want out of life, and knowing who I am at the deepest levels of my being. The direction I wish to take my life is not related to what I was learning in college, so the choice was very clear. I thought, “If I’m going to stay in school, why don’t I just go outside and dig a hole for no reason instead? They are both an equally good use of my time.” Anyone close to me will tell you I had been considering dropping out for the past year, but I only recently had the courage to actually do it. This courage came through the process of self-realization described above. First you must know yourself, and then you can do crazy things like dropping out of college or quitting your job.
Now you may be asking, what exactly is faith?
Faith is what you get when you combine courage and self-confidence.
Faith is the ability to trust your intuition.
Faith is the ability to trust yourself with making the big decisions in life.
Faith is the ability to understand that every decision you’re making is the right one and that your life is playing out exactly as it should be.
Faith is the ability to understand there is a higher power working for you behind the scenes that you are unable to see with your own two eyes.
Faith is believing before seeing, because you know you’re doing the right things.
Faith is gratitude towards your current situation because you know it’s great and only getting better.
Faith is, as Voltaire so eloquently stated, the ability to believe when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
