“If you think you can or your think you can’t, you’re probably right.” Henry Ford
The great monuments of our distant past like the neolithic Stonehenge and Maeshowe of Orkney still enchant the world today. The observer is often left awestruck as they ponder upon the question, how? How did our ancient forebears construct such holy and glorious reverences to nature with nothing but bone and stone tools? Not only this, but in an age when life was hard, no creature comforts or labour saving devices like pocket sprung beds or washing machines, when the sum of your possessions were yours by your ingenuity and determination alone.
Whilst many ponder upon the practical, such as how they moved the stones, I am far more fascinated by the psychological. In modern times quitting is easy, don’t want to cook, call a takeaway, feeling a little rough, call in sick. By virtue of our apparent successes we have allowed ourselves to become weak willed. We have in our ignorance, forgot the magic of belief.
How many people start a venture only to give up a little down the road. How many times have you heard yourself or another declare with confidence “this year I am going to get fit”. They buy a Gym membership and all the paraphernalia that comes with it. They spend several evenings planning and working out all the fine details of their new venture, then in only a few months they quit. I doubt anyone reading this has not experienced this first hand in some way or another, so why do people quit so easily?
The truth is they never really believed they could. they spent their time engaging in the abstraction of the action rather than its goal. In the example above we see this, the gym membership, the endless planning and equipment, were just an outward manifestation of their own self doubt. Whilst good planning and due consideration of any action are worthwhile, without the essential belief, they are left impotent. Whereas a man with only the raw belief, that he can becomes a vital and potent force of creation.
Belief is such a powerful and fundamental force it goes unnoticed. We apply it to every single action we take, whether we know it or not. It is the foundational force, that underpins all others. Desire and determination are all good and well, but if your belief is in failure these powerful forces of creation will work against you, not inline with you.
We take belief for granted, we assume that as soon as we want something then the belief we can get it is a given. Unlike say desire, the raw want of something, belief operates more in the periphery. It dwells in the sub conscious and whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t is, unless you take active control of it, out of your hands.
The easiest way to see belief in action is when you do a simple movement. Have you ever hit your head on a door, or walked into a lamp post? It really hurt didn’t it? The reason it hurt so much is because you walked into it with the full force of your determination. With firm belief nothing was in your way, you tried to walk right through it. Simple actions like walking, because you have done it for so long you have total belief in your ability, this can sometimes trip you up, quite literally.
The example above shows how to much self belief can have a negative impact. Although if we weigh up all the times you tripped or bumped your head compared to all the times you didn’t, then it would be clear that although over confidence can lead to mishaps, in the grand scale of things this is a tiny percentage. Thus we can conclude that whilst to much self belief can have a negative impact, more often than not it will get you to where you are going.
To much self belief is rare though these days, whilst we all know someone who is a little too cock sure of themselves, for the most part people constantly doubt themselves. They are plagued by pangs of self doubt in almost every action, even if externally they exude confidence. Self belief is lacking because failure has lost its meaning. For our ancestors in many cases there was no option for failure. A hunter looking to feed his family had to come home with the bacon, less he wished to watch his beloved suffer. If he failed the first time, he just tried again, he kept on keeping on. Without the option for failure he was impenetrable to doubt.
You remember that nut you just couldn’t tighten, or that essay you left to the last minute? Remember how you cursed, threw your spanner or pen to the ground, stamped your feet in a childish display? Hold on though, I remember now you tightened that nut, and got that essay in on time didn’t you? You contorted your body and moved that nut millimetre by millimetre, you stayed up all night to get that essay written. For some reason, you decided in that moment, it had to be so, so, it was. You gave yourself no option for defeat, thus you won.
When our ancestors decided they were going to build a temple of stone to celebrate the gift of life, and honour the glory of the Gods and Goddesses, they didn’t set up board meetings they didn’t procrastinate on the intimate details of how, they simply decided it was going to be. They pushed those stones inch by inch, and after wearing out a few hundred tools, tired and exhausted they looked up, and the image of their desire was manifest.
There is much more to belief than this simple piece has laid out, but it’ll do for now. To emphasise the power of belief in the most extreme circumstances, I will add a short video below. The video is by survivalist Ray Mears, called “the psychology of survival” and is well worth a watch.