Why You Must Believe in Yourself
The working title for this post before it went live was, Believe in Yourself… Because No One Else Does.
I admit that’s harsh. There are probably many people in your life who believe in your ability to succeed. Mom or dad or the significant other. But those individuals’ own lives consume the bulk of their time. They are too busy believing—or not believing—in themselves to focus solely on your success. No one has as much vested interest in seeing you succeed as the person looking back from the mirror every morning.
You are your best friend. You have the most to lose if you fail. You are in charge of your future successes, no one else.
Others may assist and occasionally give your wings positive thrust with encouragement and support, but you can’t glide to lofty destinations counting only on friendly lift. To get where you want to go in life, you must spread your wings and put some muscle into them. You must take action.
Action is key. Dreams are great. Dreams are necessary. But they don’t happen if they’re not powered by action.
But, we stall. We procrastinate. Mostly because we fear we won’t succeed. We worry the first landscape painting we create will be mistaken for an abstract, that the majestic sculpture we attempt will look more confused chipmunk than a gallant steed. We cringe knowing the first draft of our perfectly envisioned manuscript will never, ever live up to our fool’s gold expectations.
But that’s how it’s supposed to work. Those “failures” are designed to give us the necessary experience to succeed.
If we keep going.
Brilliance is forged, rarely born. In this world of instant gratification, too many want to skip the hard work and go directly to the sunny accolades.
Life doesn't work that way.
Success is usually a long, treacherous climb with a few pleasant resting spots along the way. But if we keep going—months, years, decades—we may find the journey levels out to the easy street we sought in the beginning. Ironically, it won’t matter as much then because we’ll realize after it’s over that the journey was the ultimate reward, not the destination.
So put some muscle into spreading your wings. Believe you can fly as you’ve never believed before, then enjoy the ride.
No matter how long it takes.
