Faith is an abiding confidence in you and your support network as well as an enduring conviction that the journey is worth the outcome.
First if you are going to attain your highest potential you must have faith in your own self. If you do not deem yourself worthy of the prize you will not give your best shot at achieving it.
You are valuable and worth the extra effort to attain the best you. If you are going to thrive and soar within and beyond your circumstances, you must believe that you have it within yourself to make it happen.
In order to see your own worth, try this exercise: take a few minutes to write down the milestones you completed in your life thus far. Don't worry about the size of the accomplishments and do not try to compare them with someone else's list. Simply list every one of your own achievements small, medium or large. For instance, jot down the title of every book you've read; each meal you have prepared; the school grades you have completed, etc... The list could include an endless number of things. Chances are you have done much more than you allow yourself to imagine. Taking the time to list even your most mundane achievements will give you confidence and faith that you are able to attain a new vision for your life.
Beyond faith in yourself you must have faith in others.
In the classic tail The Wizard of Oz young Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves far away from Kansas in a strange land of good and evil witches and funny looking small people called munchkins. Lost and confused Dorothy so desperately wants to go home but has no clue about how to escape her new surroundings. Gently, she is told by the inhabitants of the land that only one person had the power to send her back: the Wizard of OZ in Emerald City. Unfortunately this news did not calm the little girl's confused mind. Dorothy continued to fret because she did not know this strange wizard nor the way to the unfamiliar place called the Emerald City. Kindly, the Good Witch of the North points and tells the young lost girl to simply follow the Yellow Brick Road.
At this point Dorothy had to make a choice. She had to decide whether she would believe the friendly witch or not. Dorothy did not know these people. She did know whether they were trustworthy or not. As such Dorothy could have succumbed to her debilitating fears and simply sat down refusing to budge from her current spot. Or, she could welled up with pride, picked herself up by her boot straps and forged her own trail to the unknown destination. In either case, Dorothy would have never found her way to the Wizard of Oz let alone home.
If Dorothy was ever going to see her loved ones again she had to have faith in the kind witch and her munchkin friends.
Likewise, if you and I want to rise to our highest potential we must have faith in others.
In the fall of 2007 I coached soccer for the first time. I had an awesome time. The reason I had an awesome time was not because our team won, which we did, but because of the team effort involved. I was fortunate to have a group of parents who were experienced and knew much about soccer. I had five fathers who were or had been coaches. Of course, as "the coach" I could have waved them off and said, "No thanks I'll take it from here." On the other hand, I could have allowed them to dominate the practices and ride me through the season. Instead, we chose to trust each other. Especially, four of us worked together designing and executing practices in order to instill in the players new skills and techniques they could use in the next game. Because we had faith in each other, we had a great time and so did the kids.
Michael Phelps will soon be the most decorated Olympian in the history of the global games. As I write he is competing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China where he is expected to break the record for the most individual gold medals ever won by any athlete in any Olympic sport since they were revived in 1896. He is also poised to win the most gold medals in one single Olympics held by fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz. In order to reach his goal to win eight gold medals Phelps will need to have faith in himself and equal faith in his teammates.
Five of the medals will be won in individual events; the other three in team relays. In each case Phelps has to swim with all his might if he wants a shot at the record. This means he must believe in himself. Yet in the relays he is not alone. He cannot swim all four legs of each respective event and hope to win the top prize. Phelps must give his best effort and then trust that his teammates will come through as well.
The same is true for you. If you desire to thrive and soar above your circumstances you must have faith in yourself and others. Then and only then will you become the best you. Becoming the best you requires a worthwhile and inspiring vision, tenacity and hard work, and a deep and abiding faith in yourself and others.
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