Getting across the beam

We often underestimate the role that belief plays in our development. But the truth is you could be so much more if only you believed.

Take something as seemingly insignificant as walking across a balancing beam. The people that make it from one side to the other will be the ones that believe they can get across.

Sure they might fall off a few times but because they already believe it’s possible they’ll have the determination to keep trying.

On the other hand, the ones who don’t believe, well they’re more likely to fall off and less likely to keep trying.

Or they won’t even try at all.

Daydream and do

Do you ever spend time daydreaming about the life you want. The things you’ll do, places you’ll go, where you’ll live and how you’ll earn a living?

What do you do once the daydream is over?

It’s so easy to think that the life you daydream about is far from reach but in reality a good chunk of that distance will disappear once you start believing your dream life is possible.

That belief will come from realising that it’s possible to live the kind of life you want. You don’t have to settle as a result of the expectations of others or because the gap between where you are and where you want to be is too wide.

Once you start believing it’s possible you can move onto the next step, making it happen.

Saying yes to exploration

The idea of exploring is one I don’t think is valued enough. I don’t mean travelling and exploring new countries or cities, I mean exploring self.

Being able to know your own limits whilst also being able to put yourself out there and experience new things.

It’s so easy to stay within the remit of what you know because there’s comfort in familiarity. However, it’s also worth considering when you don’t venture outside of that you lose the chance to learn about yourself about and understand yourself.

When you give yourself the opportunity to explore life a little more, you might find that you don’t actually believe the things you thought were true.

The reason behind the risk

When taking a risk pays off, it’s easy to get caught up in the fact that things turned out the way you wanted.

But I think it’s important to also focus on the reason behind taking the risk in the first place.

You did it because you believed it was worth it, you knew it would get you a step closer to where you want to be, you wanted to push yourself and try something new or you had the confidence that it would work out.

Sometimes the reason behind the risk is more important than the outcome.

Slowly but surely

Sometimes good things take time.

But if you’re not willing to wait you’ll end up missing out.

The lesson to learn is that you have to believe it can happen before it happens, instead of getting impatient.

Trust that the thing you want is possible and slowly but surely it’ll happen.

Granted it can be difficult to hold on to what might feel like blind faith but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

And don’t get caught up in thinking that the frustration of waiting is your only option.

So much can change in a moment, a few hours or a day.

Before you know it you’ll be onto the good bit.

You’re lucky until you’re not

The idea of luck is great as a one off thing but if you grow to rely on it you’ll end up becoming lazy and disappointed.

You’ll be lazy because you’ll live your life assuming that you don’t have to try so hard because luck will balance things out for you.

And you’ll be disappointed because at some point things won’t balance out and you’ll be left wondering why?

Luck isn’t sustainable to rely on for the life you want but it’s great as an addition to a life you’ve worked for.

Luck is like the icing without the cake or the digestive biscuit without the chocolate, you’re perfectly fine without it.

Granted, there’s nothing wrong with holding the belief that things will turn out swimmingly but you can’t really expect that when you’ve taken the do nothing approach.

Making up for lost time

If you missed out on anything in your younger years you might hold the belief that it’s too late to do the things you wished you’d done.

But what if you do them now, what if you make a conscious effort to make up for lost time?

Granted with age comes responsibility, so taking out a few months to go backpacking around Asia might not be feasible, if you now have a full time job and a mortgage to pay but maybe you could do it for a week or two instead.

Sometimes it seems as though once we reach a particular age we have to ‘settle down’ and certain things are no longer available to us. But that’s just you restricting yourself. Just because you didn’t get to have as much fun growing up as you’d have liked doesn’t mean it’s too late.