How Important is Belief?
I’ve often heard and even spoken a lot about how important belief is for accomplishing goals. For this reason I have practiced self-belief, visualization, writing down and carrying my goals with me, etc. But, as helpful as those things can be, I don’t know if I can truly attribute my accomplishments to the belief that I could actually do them.
The Two Types of Belief
For my purposes I’m creating a distinction between two types of belief that come into play when trying to accomplish a goal. I’m going to define them here so I can bring them in later:
1. Experiential Belief: I believe I can do this because I know I’ve done it before and I am an expert. If you are among the fortunate group of adults who knows how to tie your shoes, you probably don’t wake up in the morning wondering whether or not you’re going to be able to tie your shoes that day. It’s a given. This is the type of belief that comes from a repeated experience of your own capability to accomplish a goal.
2. Speculative Belief: I believe I can do this because, though I’ve never done it before, I’ve demonstrated the skills and the expertise necessary in areas similar to this goal. For example, if you can tie your shoe, you can probably tie a bow for a gift package. Or, if you’re really good at drawing pictures of cats, you can probably draw a picture of a tiger. This is a belief that the “stuff” you need to accomplish a goal is inside of you, though you do not have the experiential proof.
These types of belief are great motivators. Believing that you can and will accomplish a goal…
But what if you don’t have that knowing belief? What if the question ‘can I do this?’ returns a huge question mark, or a ‘maybe’, or an ‘I don’t know’?
“I Can’t Believe I Just Did That”
I have this experience often where I look back at a project I finished and wonder to myself how I did it. Most recently I spent nearly 20 hours working on an artistic piece for a client. It was a huge project and to be honest, when I look at it, when I watch the time lapse video I made of the final piece, I almost can’t imagine that was ME doing it. It’s like it was someone else.
Another example of this is some of the home improvement projects I’ve taken on. We redesigned our kitchen, installing tile floors, tile backsplash on the walls, sanded and stained the cabinets, installed new cabinets, installed can lights… when I walk into that kitchen it’s hard to believe that I did all of that.
Probably the strongest example is the children. How they are still alive today is a mystery to me. After the birth of our first and those preliminary days in the hospital, the nurse came in and said, ‘Ok, it’s time to send you guys home.’ And even though I knew we were supposed to take this little human baby home to live with us, I almost said out-loud, ‘wait… don’t we need some kind of certification or something? I think he’d be safer here. We should just leave him here with you and we will just come visit.’ But here we are 7 years later and I really couldn’t tell you how we got here.
Despite Belief…
Except that we just did. I couldn’t tell you that I had experiential or even speculative belief that I could help raise another human being, but I just did. If I waited until I had an unwavering belief or could be convinced that I would be successful in raising a child before I would let them send a baby home with me, we’d still probably be in the hospital… seven years later. The bill would be astronomical.
It makes me wonder, what am I not doing today because I’m holding out for belief?
Disproving Disbelief
Now I want to contrast this with disbelief. There is a huge difference between saying ‘I don’t know if I can do that’ and ‘I know I can’t do that.’ The voice that says that you cannot do something is a liar. Here’s why:
1. You don’t know everything.
You could say with certainty, 'I can accomplish that.' But, you most certainly cannot say with certainty, 'I cannot accomplish that.'
— ben toalson (@bentoalson) May 12, 2014
That’s it. You have no idea what you might be capable of if you practiced, over and over, that thing you believe you cannot do. You have no idea what technological or scientific breakthroughs might be on the horizon that will make what seems impossible today possible tomorrow. You have no idea what might change in your circumstances. You don’t know what the future holds. You don’t know everything. So, though you may not be able to say, ‘Yes, I can certainly do that!’, you certainly cannot say, ‘No, I cannot do that.’ At the very worst there is a low probability of success, but there’s still a chance!
Believe If You Can, But Try!
It’s great to have belief. Belief can be a very helpful ally, but if you don’t allow yourself to work toward or even set goals unless you believe you can accomplish them; if you don’t make it about the doing, even in the face of doubt, the world will miss out on the amazing things that you never knew or couldn’t have guessed you have inside of you. Because maybe there is greatness in you. Maybe there is a masterpiece in you. As long as there is a chance, I say go for it!