In 2006, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said on the importance of belief for success: “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” The word ‘belief’ can be defined as an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists; or to have trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something. What do you believe in? And have you ever wondered if your beliefs serve you or hold you back? In today’s article, let’s get a better understanding of the importance of belief for innovation and achievement.
The American essayist H. L. Mencken noted that: “Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.” Now if you look at a bold plan, a compelling vision, a big idea with only your logical, rational mind, you never get started; you’d never dare to act because of the low likelihood of success. But realize that all breakthrough creations that have pushed the human race forward were grounded in an illogical belief in an impossible idea — like creating a heavier-than-air flying machine, building the pyramids of Giza, constructing a rocket to shoot man to the moon, and so on. Your belief gives you the courage to overcome your doubts, worries and fears, to start an impossible challenge against all odds and to be persistent and see it through until the end. Muhammad Ali noted in this context: “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
What can you do to start to believe? Here are three tips to get you started.
1. Perform a Beliefs Check: List core beliefs that you have about yourself or about the challenge that you face. Then, go through your list of beliefs and ask yourself: ‘Is this belief empowering or limiting?’ For all the limiting beliefs, ask: ‘Was there ever a time when the opposite was true?’ If you find any incident, you have disproved your limiting belief.
For example, you might cultivate the limiting belief: “I am not creative.” Now ask yourself: “Was there ever a moment when I had a creative idea?” If you can recall just one situation when you had a good idea, you’ve found evidence that counters your limiting belief. Now you can change it to an empowering belief: “Hey, I am creative!” Then, look for more evidence to support this and all your other empowering beliefs. Here keep a simple metaphor in mind: Beliefs are like tables. The more legs (i.e., supporting evidence) you put under them, the stronger the belief.
2. Affirm your empowering beliefs: Affirmations are short empowering assertions that you repeat over and over again, like “I am creative” or “Yes we can.” Muhammad Ali, who was constantly pushing himself up with empowering affirmations before a fight, knew: “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”
Affirmations help you to anchor your empowering beliefs in your subconscious mind. Create a short affirmation (ideally not more than three words) for each important empowering belief. Then start to affirm your empowering beliefs whenever doing sport, driving to work, taking a break, or looking into a mirror.
3. Reconnect to your spiritual source: The last tip is the most challenging task — and the most powerful if you have the courage to go into it with an open mind and heart. Get yourself a piece of paper and ten minutes of uninterrupted time to reflect upon the following question: In your life, have you ever experienced a situation of divine guidance or protection? List all these spiritual situations, and try to relive your feelings of awe and gratitude. Keep this list handy for those moments when you have to boldly move forward on your path to improving the world — or have to overcome doubts and hardships.
For example, one point on my list is based on the following story: On the weekend of my first high school reunion, all of a sudden I got the strong urge to visit my father, who was recovering from an operation in hospital. I left the party against the protest of my classmates, drove for 2 hours to my father and spent peaceful quality time with him. Later that afternoon, my dad suddenly collapsed and died of an embolism. On that day, I had no plan whatsoever to visit my father; I am immensely grateful that I got a calling to leave the party and be the last person to talk to Dad before his death. Do you think that I believe?
Conclusion: Henry Ford said: “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you’re right.” Creativity and innovation have their foundations in the ability to believe. Believe in yourself, that you are here for a great, noble reason, and that you can make our world a better place if you follow your purpose and believe. Like never before in the history of mankind, we live in times of plentiful opportunities. Not many years ago, a young Afro-American teenager with the name Barack Hussein Obama started to believe that one day, he would become the President of the United States of America. Today, against all odds, he is. So if we believe in ourselves, can we change the world? “Yes we can!”
© Dr. Detlef Reis 2009. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 13 August 2009.