The Secret of Success, Faith and Confidence

What separates the people who achieve success in their lives from those who fail to achieve their objectives? The answer is, having confidence and faith. It is these two traits that make all the difference.

Just think about the successful people you have come across in your life. Did any of them exhibit any uncertainty or trepidation about the things they did? The answer is almost certainly that no, they did not. To be successful you have to pursue your goals with 100% objectivity and you can’t do that if you have doubts.

The other point to think about is whether you would like having people who constantly dither around in your company – I suspect, probably you wouldn’t.

Rate your own faith and confidence

How about you? What sort of a category would you put yourself in? Employing a scale from 1 to 10, whereby 1 equals having little or no faith or confidence in things, and 10 being where you have total faith and confidence; what score would you award yourself? Be honest now! If you award yourself anything below a score of 10 it means that there is room for improvement.

Success doesn’t come easily

A lot of people wrongly believe that others who are successful, were born to it, or that they were simply fortunate, and because of this their life is easy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because confident people are not afraid to meet challenges head-on, they often end-up taking on more than others. It’s all about welcoming challenges when they arise, being positive and finding ways of succeeding. This is what sorts out winners from losers.

Reinforcing your faith

When we talk about having faith, we are talking about trusting in the path you have chosen, and the fact that it is the right way forward. Your faith’s strength will be underpinned by your singleness of purpose, and the knowledge that you are on the right road. Without this, your faith will be short-lived and this is why so many people don’t fulfill their potential.

Success isn’t something that you can achieve without conviction. The confidence that you have in yourself and your plans for meeting your goals, reflect how targeted you are. If you don’t have this complete self-assuredness, your success will fall short. You need it to be able to face the challenges you will receive from others.

Success is always hard-fought. I can contest this personally. During my working life as a coach and mentor I have been obstructed by many people and many difficulties.

Dealing with challenges along the way

You too are bound to face many challenges as you work your way towards your aims. It’s all very well to have people around you who can help and guide you, but in the end it is you and only you who must strive for your success, even if it means going against the advice of others.

You may often find that you alone are the only one who has belief and faith in a particular project and its outcome, and this is often true at the outset. But that is what having belief and faith is all about – seeing things that other people can’t or won’t see.

But as we said earlier, it is not just a case of having unshakable faith; you must also have unshakable confidence too. You mustn’t however let your confidence make you look arrogant. This will alienate you from others.

As well as having confidence, you must also temper this with humility. Accept defeat gracefully if ever you have to, and when you do prove others wrong, and you get it right; don’t gloat.

Remember that we all make mistakes at one time or another. The important thing is to learn from them so you don’t get caught out the same way twice. You mustn’t of course let any failures dent your confidence.

People associate with confidence

People enjoy having confident people around them. By the same token they do not enjoy having ditherers around. It tends to suck all their energy away.

If you don’t have any confidence, or you are too negative, you are simply defeating yourself before you’ve even started. If you have faith and confidence that you are progressing in the right direction, you will find that the things you need will automatically come your way. It’s a bit like making your own luck. You make your own self-fulfilling prophecies.

People who are confident, but who have that tinge of humility about them, are always admired and respected. Those around you will want to be part of your success and they will help and support you. But remember that the opposite is true as well. If you are too negative and full of doubt, people will tend to avoid you. No one wants to be brought down by others.

Your action plan

Here are some actions you can take to set about achieving the success your desire.

• On a scale from 1 to 10, rate yourself in terms of your faith and confidence. Does the rating satisfy you? If it doesn’t, why is this?
• Would others give you the same rating? If they don’t, try and understand why this should be. You can then go about fixing it, if needs be.
• Figure out what is that you can do if you believe that you need to increase your levels of self-confidence and faith and set about acting on those changes.

If you follow these steps and thoughts diligently, take it from me – you will succeed!