I know what you’re thinking. “This guy probably read a motivational quote on social media and now he’s telling us that nothing is impossible. Yeah right.”
I think the world has no shortage of motivational articles, books, videos, or Facebook posts.
You don’t need a bigger dose of #mondaymotivation. You know why? That type of motivation is not practical. It doesn’t do anything. It’s not useful. It’s the same as drinking Red Bull. It fades quickly.
Belief, on the other hand, is a tool that’s extremely useful. And it’s underutilized by many.
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.
Hope is not a strategy for life. I prefer to look at facts and make conclusions like a pragmatist.
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.
No, life is not an R. Kelly song. You can’t fly, no matter how hard you believe it.
A pragmatist always keeps it real.
- 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 this. 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 as simple as that. But it’s something that you truly have to believe.
It’s one thing to say that you believe something. It’s a whole different thing to actually believe.
Let me highlight that by sharing a personal story. For most of my life, I lived in fear. It all started at school. People told me:
“If you don’t get good grades, you will not be accepted to a good university, and without a good degree, you will never get a job, and you will become a bum who dies alone.”
After hearing that, my seventeen-year-old brain went into a full-fledged panic mode. I started believing that stupid story.
Who wants to become a bum and die alone?
That’s a metaphor for not believing in yourself. Because somehow, that’s always the alternative.
If you do something that’s uncommon, or maybe a little risky, the common argument is that you become homeless.
I meet a lot of people who 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?
- Do you never expose your work to the world because you’re afraid people will throw rocks at you because you suck?
Will that really happen? Or is that just your mind acting up? Probably the latter.
I always wanted to become a writer. Back in school, I wrote poems for my girlfriend. It was kind of pathetic, but hey, she enjoyed my weird poems. But all jokes aside, 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 business. I don’t regret that decision because I’ve learned many useful things.
But the whole experience turned me into a fearful creature. Because after that whole scare-fest in school, 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.
You can achieve anything (as long as you believe in it).
What’s something you once believed in but stopped believing because of fear? I think we’ve all been there. If you’re not careful, you’ll always stay there.
For me, it wasn’t until two or three years ago that I figured out belief is an instrument that can help you to achieve your goals.
Somehow I started reading about pragmatism (which is a way of thinking).
And it completely changed my own way of thinking. I realized that not believing in yourself is useless. So I decided to believe that I could live the life I wanted.
Granted, I’m not fully paying the bills by writing yet. I run a business and do consult. But I do make some money with my blog. And that’s pretty good to know for the seventeen-year-old version of me.
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.
Do you believe it?
