image courtesy of: xinageco.wordpress.com

Is there one attribute that will get me everything I want? One idea that will allow me to achieve anything that I set out for myself? The concept that a single thing could make the difference between an unfulfilling life and a brand new delight in the world and my future is something that is incredible hard to swallow, but the truth of it is that there is something that will create that kind of change in my life and in anyone else’s life as well. That attribute is the ability to believe. I am not talking about believing in a higher power or anything along those lines, instead I am talking about self-belief, the belief that I have the ability to achieve anything that I set my sites on. This belief in myself and my abilities is something that carries me farther every day than anything else in my life and can be the same source of motivation and power for you as well.

This is not an easy attribute to cultivate in ourselves. Our world today is much better at creating a disbelief in ourselves and our own agency than it is at building up that power in an individual. The reasons for that cultural outlook are myriad and the source of a doctoral thesis I am sure, but the fact remains that we do not believe in our ability to achieve what we want. We have to make an active effort to set outside the confines of our culture and our training to create belief in ourselves and our abilities. Good thing I have been growing and learning to how to assist myself in growth.

Once we have created a strong belief in ourselves, the obstacles that plagued us for so long disappear. What is the worry about paying the rent, when you know that you will be able to make that money in the time frame needed? That no longer presents itself as an obstacle. In fact, obstacles no longer exist in any aspect of our lives when we hold the belief in our abilities tightly. Those old worries merely become challenges to overcome on our way to our own assured victory. Even setbacks are not failures anymore, but chances to learn and grow and become even more powerful and able on our journey.

Creating this belief in ourselves is something that has been very hard for me honestly. I was raised poor and had a brother that underachieved in every way in life. It was taught to me by my youth that, even though I was smart and able, that there was a limit to what I could do. This outlook as tinted my perception all my life and at every obstacle or setback, I would see the ways that it might not work rather than the ways to make it work. It even kept me from pursuing things that I look back at and realize I could have done with ease if I had simply believed that I could. So the first step for me in creating belief in myself was to change my outlook on the events in my life. As I looked back at the things that I have done in my life, I need to change the portions of those events that I concentrate on. Instead of seeing those places where I stumbled or failed, I instead look at those places where I overcame and achieved. These events are the ones that I need to hold in my mind and my soul so that I can nurture that seed of belief. These are the things that will allow that belief to grow and as it grows it will breed its own successes to continue that growth. It will become a self feeding cycle that will result in an outlook on the world that allows me to achieve anything that I want to.

What aspects of your past have bred a disbelief in your own abilities? How are you going to step away from those and create that seed of belief in your?