Identify and Believe in Yourself

Build Better Version Of Yourself

“You are now, and you do become, what you think about.”

― Earl Nightingale, The Strangest Secret.

 Belief system is deeply rooted in subconscious mind. Believing in oneself is racing on up heal road. Belief system is outcome of social intercourse of individual. During my masters in psychology I read an incident of a child who was jeopardized and kept in closed room for 14 years with the lambs and goats on an experimental basis. When he was taken out of the confinement, first word he spoke was “b-a-y-y-y-e”, exactly the sound that goat makes. As human is a social being, the environment makes him what he is. It is very easy to believe others but believing own self is inevitably difficult. I was narrating a story in one of my lectures at high school to young boys.

“So many frogs were in the well and some of them were trying to come out of the well. One of the frogs was jumping arduously but it was falling back again and again. All the frogs were shouting in their language, “You cannot climb, fox, you cannot climb!” but after certain attempts the subject frog jumped out of well.”

You know why he could succeed? Because that frog was deaf. Due to the hard of hearing trouble it could not listen the negative repetition of fellow frogs. Likewise, if you listen to the people who are negative you cannot achieve your day to day task.

Everyone has self-limiting belief and that is hindrance to reveal true potential. But there is the good news, you can gradually change your belief system.

Develop A Vision

Your self-image depends upon what type of books you are reading and with what type of people you associate. Replacement of negative thoughts with positive thoughts are major factor for changing your self-belief and reaching to your fullest potential.

The story of Chinese bamboo tree is well known. Seed of the bamboo is sowed in the land and nurtured with water and fertilizer for more than five years but nothing comes out. But after five years bamboo grows about 100 feet within 3 to 4 weeks. During these five years the roots of the bamboo are so deep routed that they are unshakable against the deadly storms. In the same way if your mind is constantly nurtured with good thoughts, words and positive mental feeding one can never be shaken during adverse situations and hurdles in life.

Rain Dance

       In Dry area with sands when it did not rain for years together and all of a sudden when it started raining, the eight years old children were surprised with wow moments that water is falling from sky! During one of the motivational seminars one of my mentors narrated the story of an old man who was living in open hut. When it did not rain, villagers used to go to old man who started dancing and it rained. Every time when there was a dire need of rain, people made old man to dance and all the time it rained. Once the people asked to old man what is the secret behind it. When people emphasized to know the reason old man told, “There are two things responsible for rain, firstly I have a profound faith in God that he will send the rain and second I have intense faith in me and I will continue dancing till God sends the rain. So, faith and belief are interwoven.

You are brand in yourself

 George Brandt, a Senior Contributor gives excellent example in 'The Animal School' on leadership strategy,

 "The animals organized a school to help their children deal with the problems of the new world. And to make it easier to administer the curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying, they decided that all their children would take all the subjects. This produced some interesting issues.

The duck was excellent in swimming but relatively poor in running, so he devoted himself to improving his running through extra practice. Eventually, his webbed feet got so badly worn that he dropped to only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in this school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

The rabbit had a nervous breakdown because the other animals said she looked like a rat when she jumped in the water for swimming class and all her hair got matted down.

In the climbing class, the eagle beat all the others to the top of the tree, but kept insisting on using his own method of getting there. This was unacceptable, so the eagle was severely disciplined"

If you try to become Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lata Mangeshkar you cannot be either of them. As every individual in unique just like thumb impression, you have to be legendary in your style. A rabbit starting to learn swimming miserably failed. You cannot make fish to climb the tree in spite of all the skills you employ. You are brand in yourself and therefore develop your potential according to your taste and style. One of my education instructor in personality development classes in Armed Forces suggested me not to become Edwin Moses, a champion in 400 meters hurdles or Moses Kiptanui running sub 8 minutes 3000 meters steeple chase when I was in coaching camp for middle distance running. You are ‘You’ and develop as you only. Your personal best timing much more essential than beating your counterpart in competition.

Sebastian Coe won the men’s 1500 meters final from Jürgen Straub and Steve Ovett at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He could break sub 4 minutes [1]barrier in a mile race because he conceived in his mind, "I was prepared to die with blood in my boots for 1500m" Now almost every athlete runs below 4 minutes in mile race but it was not achieved till the great Olympian achieved.

“It always seems impossible until it's done.”-Nelson Mandela

 Key Takeaways

1. If you sow ground nuts, ground nuts grow. If you sow tobacco seeds tobacco grows.

2. Prefer to be eagle than the parrot because parrot speaks more but flies less but eagle is calm and quiet but has a might of touching sky.

[1] Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was a British middle-distance athlete and neurologist who ran the first sub-4-minute mile