“You have to believe in something, anything. But the most important thing is to believe”
One lesson I learned as a teenager was the power of believing. In my opinion, some people disparage other’s fantastic beliefs because these critics don’t understand the power that believing in something can accomplish. When you believe in something, no matter how unrealistic or unscientific, what many fail to realize is that it doesn’t matter whether what you believe is true, if believing in it allows you to live a better life.
Now, keep in mind I’m not talking about believing in things that can be proven to be untrue or things which don’t really have an effect on our lives. When I say to believe in something, I mean to believe in a philosophy, a way of life, or hope, or a person, or even your own eventual success. These are things that can’t be true or untrue. A person, or way of life, or philosophy can’t be “true” or “untrue”. Whether you will be successful eventually is not something that can be true or false. A philosophy of life can’t be true or false. If believing in any of these things frees you up to live a healthier, more fulfilling, and more productive life, then why not believe? Does it really matter whether its true or untrue (even though I argued previously that these types of beliefs can’t be proved one way or another) if believing is a decision that adds value to and enhances your life?
Is the world black or white? Is the world filled with evil people, or good people? Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between, but for our individual purposes, the truth does not really matter. What does matter is what you need to believe in order to live the life you want to. If you’re a positive person and have a positive outlook towards life, then believing that the world is filled with mostly good people just makes sense! You couldn’t live life the way you wanted to if the opposite was true – life just wouldn’t be worth living. This is the only way you know how to live, and believing that the world is good is crucial to how you live.
Some people need to believe in heaven or an afterlife in order to function in this life. Without heaven as part of the equation, living life just doesn’t make sense. It matters not whether heaven is actually there. What does matter is that believing in it gives people the strength to make it through their lives.
This isn’t a column about religion – far from it. I’m not asking people to start praying or to believe in God. This is about recognizing the power of belief and positive thinking. I know this power exists because I recognized it from an early age and I’ve seen numerous evidence for this phenomenon year after year. What about myself? What are my personal beliefs? Are there things I have faith in which can’t be proven, but which empower me to live life the way I want? Of course! Some of my beliefs may seem far-fetched, but no one can prove them untrue or get me to stop believing in them unless I choose to. One of these beliefs is that I’m destined for greatness. Do I know whether I will one day be great? Knowing and believing are different things. I don’t know exactly what will happen, so I can’t say that I am certain that I will succeed at the things I try. But believing that I will be great someday gives me the energy, the resolve, the hope, and the conviction to carry on and to attempt the impossible. I couldn’t live life any other way. Either I believe wholeheartedly in myself and charge full steam ahead, or I don’t believe and I don’t try at all.
What do you believe in? Do you know what your destiny is? In my next article, I talk about The Destiny Principle and why it matters.