Is Believing in Yourself Enough?
YODA: And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It’s energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we…(Yoda pinches Luke’s shoulder)…not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you…me…the tree…the rock…everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship!
LUKE: (discouraged) You want the impossible.
Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the ship. Soon, the fighter rises above the water and moves forward as Artoo beeps in terror and scoots away. The entire X-wing moves majestically, surely, toward the shore. Yoda stands on a tree root and guides the fighter carefully down toward the beach. Luke stares in astonishment as the fighter settles down onto the shore. He walks toward Yoda.
LUKE: I don’t…I don’t believe it.
YODA: That is why you fail.
Luke shakes his head, bewildered.
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The point that Yoda, and really the excellent screen writers, were making is that if you don’t believe, you can’t achieve. So the question becomes – Is Believing in yourself enough?
It is critical to success and achievement that you believe in yourself and believe in what you want is obtainable.
Believing is a foundation. It is what starts motivation. Remember the formula:
Direction*Motion*(Emotion)2 = Achievement
If you truly do not believe in yourself or that you goal is achievable, then your emotions are negative. If your emotions are negative, you are pointed in the wrong direction. Not only that, your emotions are squared in the formula for achievement:
Direction*Motion*(Negative Emotion)2 = Negative Achievement
Let’s say that you set out a goal to loose weight. You tell yourself that this time, you are going to achieve your goal. So you start doing the things everyday that will help you loose the weight. That’s the motion part. You have already set a direction, somewhere south of how much you weigh today. However, in the back of your mind you are thinking “this never works”. That is your prior experience, and it brings up FEELINGS of failure, depression, sadness. Not only will you not achieve your goals, given the multiplicative nature of our emotions, you may end up even further away from where you started.
Of course, we can go the other way too. What if we just believed that good things were going to happen to us. Sometimes I hear and read about the law of attraction I wonder if people misunderstand. The author, Rhonda Byrne, believes that the law of attraction is the most powerful law in the universe. People experience manifestations in the real world of their predominant thoughts, feelings, and words. To this end, people start thinking positively about loosing weight, getting more money, finding the love of their life. They meditate, think about, journal, and dream of what they want to achieve. However, they never do anything about it, other than think about it. In this case they violate another part of the equation of achievement. There is no Motion. Well, multiply anything by zero and what is the result? Zero
Direction*0*(Emotion)2 = 0 (no achievement)
Well, by now it is obvious that the last part of the equation is also critical. Without direction, you will be very emotional with a lot of motion, but there will be no achievement.
At the beginning I asked the question, is believing in yourself enough. The answer is no. Believing that you can do something is only addressing the emotional part of the equation. However, without believing you will not achieve. And since believing is directly aimed at your emotions, it is critical that you believe. Remember that emotions have a squaring affect.
Let’s go back to Luke Skywalker and Yoda. Luke did not believe that lifting the X-Wing fighter out of the swamp was possible for him. He emotionally could not bridge that gap. So what did he do. Did he give up? No, he went on to become a full-fledged Jedi knight. So how did he overcome his belief that it wasn’t possible? He kept up the motion. He had a direction, become a Jedi Knight. He completed the training(motion), which gave him the tools to continue practicing. Through practice he achieved small improvements, which he paused to notice. Building on the small improvements he would make a even bigger improvement, and he would notice (emotion). Slowly, over time, he began to believe that he was a Jedi Knight. His emotions (beliefs) were now in accord with his actions (motion) and his direction (to become a Jedi Knight). Welcome, Luke Skywalker in the movie Return of the Jedi.
LUKE : Greetings, Exalted One. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and friend of Captain Solo.
We can do the same thing. If you want to loose weight, you have the direction. Start dieting and exercise, you have the motion. Start picturing in your head a slimmer, more fit you. Then start noticing your small achievements. Keep a journal when you loose a pound. If you slip back a little, keep up the motion. As the weight start to slip off notice (your journal). Then you will start to believe (emotions). You will have then have the full power of the equation of achievement in your hand. Good luck to all of you – I believe in you. I believe you can achieve what you want!
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I know, you see, somehow the world will change for me and be so wonderful
live life, breathe air, I know somehow we’re gonna get there and feel so wonderful
It’s all for real, I’m telling you just how i feel
So wake up the members of my nation, It’s your time to be
there’s no chance unless you take one, every time you see the brighter side of every situation
somethings are meant to be, so give me your best and leave the rest to me
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Great work keep it coming