5 Ways To Believe In Yourself

One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying. – Joan of Arc

Belief. It is one of the single most important concepts we carry as human beings. Belief lays the foundation for life. And it is the lens that we view all of the events and experiences in any given moment. It’s also the single most important ingredient in the success recipe. If you believe you can, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

But how do you go about believing in yourself? Especially when you have no foundation to form that belief. What if everything in your life has been one string of failures and upsets after another? What then? How do you believe in yourself enough to ensure that it pushes you through whatever your struggles might be?

It’s not easy. I’ll tell you that much. For the most part, we’re left with a sense of overwhelm and frustration. We feel lost and confused. Not only do we NOT believe in ourselves, we lose all sense of hope and faith in any positive outcome in business or in life. When you go from failure to failure, and there’s so much on your proverbial plate, it’s easy to see why we lack that sense of belief.

The Foundation Of Belief

I know it can be hard sometimes. But this thing that we call reality. It’s merely a perception. It’s not real. All of it is made up and based on how we look at things. Two people can go through the same exact series of events and come away with a different outlook or experience. What forms that outlook? Belief. That’s all.

However, the lens that we process belief through is called focus. When you focus on something, it helps to form a firmer foundation of belief. For example, if you think that everyone is out to get you, you’ll easily find evidence of that through focus. You’ll look at any event with that lens of focus and believe that this person, or persons, are out to get you.

The only way to change your perception of reality is to believe in yourself. It’s not easy. I get it. But understanding how you can alter your perception of reality is crucial if you want to succeed in life. You can’t allow events to get you don’t. Don’t let people hold you back. The only thing standing in your way is you.

The way you look at things matters. That comes from your focus. But it’s also rooted in your beliefs about things. It’s hard to shatter belief. When someone believes wholeheartedly in something, it’s the result of years, and even decades, of conditioning. So how do you overcome that and believe in yourself once again?

1. Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

When life gives you lemons, what do you do? Do you get upset and blame others? Do you believe that life should be easy or that you shouldn’t have to struggle so hard? Or, maybe it’s something else. Maybe growing up your family struggled and you didn’t want that for your kids. Whatever it is, we all know that life is difficult.

But it becomes incredibly more challenging when you alter your perception of events based on what you believe in. When you feel uncomfortable or stressed out or worried, how do you react? What do you say to yourself? Are the thoughts going through your mind positive or negative? Answer honestly.

The truth is that you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I know it sounds harsh. I get it. But the only person who can save you from a situation is you. At the end of the day, it all starts and ends with belief. If you don’t believe in something because you feel wronged or hurt or just downright fearful, no alert that perception but you.

2. Understand That Life Is A Journey, Not a Destination

It’s easy to lose a sense of belief in yourself when you feel like you’re running on a never-ending treadmill. You’re trying to reach a certain destination but you keep falling short. I get it. And I completely understand that. However, life truly is a journey. Your true potential is locked away inside of you. It’s not based on attaining any one thing.

However, it’s easy to lose sight of things when we fail at our goals or we face major setbacks. When that happens, it’s easy to feel disappointed. That’s especially true when we set our expectations on something and base our happiness on it. It’s easy to see why we can stop believing in ourselves when that happens.

Our external desires can sometimes give us blinders. And when we can’t attain that thing that we desire, we feel disappointed and upset. But here’s the truth about that. There’s a transformation that often occurs within. This internal transformation often lays the foundation for taking life to the next level.

Some people call is rock bottom. Others call it catastrophic failure. But when your whole world collapses all around you, it sets the scene for something great in the future. I know it’s hard to believe in yourself when that happens. But I promise you that it does. Because, when you think about some of the world’s most famous people, it was failure that set the stage for true belief and growth.

3. Learn To Trust The Process And Take Things One Step At A Time

Do you trust the process? Do you believe that things happen for a reason? If you’re constantly trying to be in control of every outcome, you’ll feel constantly stressed out and anxious. You can’t believe in yourself if you can’t let go and trust the process and allow things to play out. You just can’t. It doesn’t work that way.

Understand that you have to take things one step at a time. If you feel overwhelmed and lost right now, take baby steps. I know it’s not easy. But it’s far easier than trying to predict and control every outcome of everything in life. Do the best that you can do and allow the process to work and do its thing.

This is so crucial, I can’t even begin to stress it enough. And it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t dream big or have faith and belief in yourself. It just means that you have to take things one step at a time. One small baby step after another and your sense of disbelief can turn into the biggest sense of belief ever.

4. Have Faith In The Greater Scheme Of Things

Faith is an important element of belief. How do we believe in something that have no evidence in reality for? I’m not just talking about religion. But, yes, religion is the perfect example. Maybe you believe in God or Allah or Buddha. Maybe just the spiritual oneness that binds us all. But what created that sense of belief?

If you believe in things you cannot see or have no evidence of its existence, how come you can’t believe in yourself? Understand that faith is an important element in life. You must have faith to believe. You have to understand that there is a grander design. It might be hard to understand today, but most things do actually happen for a reason.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase. That’s very powerful when you stop to think about it. But how many times are we stifled in fear because we lack that certainty? It’s hard to take a leap of faith when you can’t guarantee an outcome. Right?

That’s why you have to go against the grain. Understand that knowledge and leverage it. Realize that everything that you ever needed to truly take life to the next level is inside of you. It’s not based on something external. Don’t be afraid to take that next step and believe in yourself. Have faith. Believe. And then go conquer your dreams.

5. Curate The Right Thoughts To Empower You

Most of the time, we don’t cultivate the right thoughts. We actually harbor bad thoughts. They don’t empower us. Rather, they hinder us and hold us back. But you have to understand the pure power of your thoughts. They can literally change your entire life. At their purest form, thoughts are merely energy. But that energy is incredibly potent.

Thoughts can either plant a seed of doubt or help to overcome the biggest obstacles. So be careful of the thoughts that you hold in your mind. Humans have 60,000 to 85,000 thoughts per day. Most of those are largely repetitive. So be careful about what you think of. Those thoughts can literally propel you forward or hold you back for good.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have a single negative thought. It simply means that if you want to believe in yourself, you need thoughts that will embolden you. Not thoughts that will destroy you. So be careful. Curate good thoughts. Focus on positive things. And don’t veer off on tangents that won’t serve you.

Can Belief Really Change Your Life?

I want to tell you something. Because, if you’re sitting there and you’ve experienced so much pain lately, I want you to know it’s okay. Pain hurts at the time. But, in the end, pain is meant to serve us. It propels us forward on our missions to help change the world. You might not think that right now. And you might not believe an ounce in yourself. But I promise you this, it does get better.

When my life came crashing down and I lost everything, I still remember that feeling like it was yesterday. I remember the weight of the world on my shoulders. The stress was so enormous that I couldn’t hold my neck up. There was this constant pressure pushing me down into the floor. I was heavy with the weight of failure. It hurt so bad that thinking about it now makes the hair on my neck stand up.

I get tingles. Shivers. The mere thought of that scenario is still so raw and painful. I didn’t believe in myself one bit. When I failed and I lost everything, I didn’t have a shred of belief. And my life spiraled out of control. But I would never take it back. That situation set the stage for me to go on to something bigger and brighter and so much better.

And it can for you too. Believe in yourself. Believe in your abilities. In the outcome. In people. Even if you feel like nothing has worked out, expect better things. And I assure you that when you focus on that and you take things one step at a time, everything can change. And I do mean everything.