In his book, The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz writes, “Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingredient of successful people.” You may have heard this kind of thinking before, especially if you’re a reader of self-help books. But it’s difficult to really understand what it means. What exactly is belief and how can it help you to achieve what you want?
Belief Lies Between Hope and Knowledge
Belief is something that lies between hope and knowledge. Before something happens, you may hope for it to happen. After the thing happens, you know that it has happened. Knowledge cannot, strictly speaking, come before the thing has actually happened.
And yet, there are times when you know, in your mind, that a certain action will lead into a certain result. You know that a certain thing will definitely come about. This is belief.
Different People Believe in Different Things
I might believe that if I take antibiotics, I can cure whatever illness is afflicting me. On the other hand, I might believe that if I try naturopathy, that will cure my illness. There might even be times when I believe that if I pray hard enough, my life will change for the better.
So one can have belief in a vast number of things. Some of us don’t believe in God while others do. Some of us believe in the scientific method while others don’t. The things we believe in are dependent on how we were raised, what our parents told us and what kind of experiences we have had in life.
Why Don’t We Believe in Ourselves?
Often, it is a lack of belief in ourselves which holds us back and prevents us from moving forward in life. Maybe someone told us when we were little that we would amount to nothing. We took this comment to heart and never really tried to make anything of ourselves. Or maybe we haven’t been able to succeed at any of the things we’ve tried so far, so we believe that we won’t be able to do so in the future.
How to Extend Your Belief in Yourself
If we practice believing in ourselves, we might actually be able to achieve all the things we want. So take a few moments out of your day. Imagine your belief as an aura that surrounds you. And then try to mentally extend that aura so that it’s bigger and stronger. Or you can use any other type of visualization that works for you.
Soon you will find that your belief in yourself has grown and that things around you have also started changing subtly to reflect this newfound sense of belief.