Believe in Yourself, No Matter What

Everyday presents opportunities that may never
occur again. I'm sure you have heard this before, in a
variety of ways--clever sayings, quotes by the famous,
infamous, and the intellectual. Interestingly enough,
decades have passed in my life and this same idea, this
statement, this knowledge is still being repeated. To my
understanding, the reason why things are repeated,
re-worded or reiterated is because some still haven't
grasped the concept. There must have been a failure in
communication, the first, third or three-hundredth time
it was expressed. Whether it was the fault of the presenter
or if it fell on deaf ears, the point is still clear:

In order to be successful, we must be ready.

How do we get ready?

Direction, Preparation and Faith.

Once we have direction, we must prepare. Another blog
will touch on these two, but I want to talk about having
Faith. According to the Bible, Faith is the hope of things
that are yet to be seen (pardon the paraphrase).

Whatever your religion, we should definitely have
Faith in ourselves. This isn't to say that we throw our
belief system out of the window and put all of our trust
in our own talents, thoughts and abilities. What this
means is that we combine our spiritual Faith with a
Faith in our talents, thoughts, abilities and hope of
what we want to achieve or acquire.

This can be applied to careers, family life or personal
life. I'm sure you have seen, known, or
heard of those who have amazing talents. Some
you may have envied, "Oh, man if I could sing like that;
if I could remember things like her; if I could speak in
front of people like that," etc. Yet, some who have
these abilities or talents, in your opinion, seem to
squander them (it may even piss you off a little). Now,
I'm not saying this is a fact for most, but the reason
for the squandering may very well be their lack of
Faith in themselves has left them with
this potential seemingly unfulfilled. I would also like
to add that everyone's passions are different and
just because we have a talent or ability doesn't mean
we have a passion to pursue it to higher levels--hence
the phrase potential seemingly unfulfilled.

Sure, setbacks happen. Sure, some may plot against
us. Sure, adversity can come within a split second...
and continue, seemingly forever. But I have seen
unlikely success stories, those who remained
steadfast in their position, determined to
overcome whatever lay in their path.

My cousin, John, told me,

"determination will beat talent any day."

Just imagine if you were a determined,
talented individual...

In closing I would like express, with all of my being,
one last thing:

Believe in yourself, no matter what!
Who are you to stand in the way of greatness?!