The Powerful Effects of Belief...

Good morning.

Every effect is brought about by a cause. 
In the world of human intercourse, the cause is usually a word or action.
The word or the action is determined by how we are thinking. 
How we are thinking is determined by our beliefs.

In the last post, I spoke of a woman who acknowledged the truth of her beliefs, and subsequently enhanced the quality, the texture, and the happiness in her life.

Here’s what happened.

This lady had an idea to start her own business. 
In the beginning it would be part time, and if it developed into a full time occupation, well and a good, and if it didn’t, it would be a profitable and productive hobby in her life. 

A friend of hers of many years, warned her of the pitfalls and the risks. She listened respectfully. She believed in her friend’s concern. 

So strong, and so relentless, were the warnings though, that my lady found herself reconsidering her aspirations.

 She was aware that this aim of hers was important to herself and her life and how she felt about herself.
She also realised that every conversation she had with the friend of many years left her in a sea of doubt, that the relationship was beginning to undermine every idea, torpedo every plan, suck the good and the life out of her dreams.

The risks and pitfalls she saw. She understood that any enterprise has no guarantee. She was concerned on two points; one that her faith in her dream was being undermined, two, that the source of her doubt was her friend. 

She also saw that while she still believed in the possible success of her idea, that her friend was becoming a threat to her aspiration.

As she believed, still does, in the quality of loyalty, she was reluctant to confront her friend and tell her to mind her own business.

But she also saw that she had a loyalty  to herself, her own ideas, and the fact that she believed in her own ability to start and develop her plan.

She expressed this to her friend, stated her intention to do what she had in mind, and if the friend was not going to support her in this calculated risk, then they wouldn’t be seeing each other for the foreseeable future.

At first the friend was defensive to the point of hostility. My Lady, however, was adamant. To her pleasant surprise, the friend then accepted what she said, and thereafter kept quiet.

My Lady started her project, much encouraged by her own decisiveness. She works steadily at a modest profit.

However, the real reward is in the realisation of her ability to take a decision, face the obstacle, get through it, and then get started on her project, and follow through, day in, day out, doing what needs to be done with a solid persistence.

The fact that she overcame the initial discouragement of her friend, and the reluctance to confront it, has given her a great lift in confidence.

She now trusts her own ideas and her  ability to act on them. She does say though, that she’s open minded and willing to listen to advice from a qualified source.

This can be a lesson for us all. 

How often do we get an idea and even before we mention it, talk ourselves out if it?
Or we can mention it to someone else, and let them talk us out if it?

Which brings us back to belief, doesn’t it?
If we ask ourselves whether we really believe it, or if it’s a passing fancy, we can mull it over, let it develop, take shape from being a vague idea into a concrete plan. 

Or, on examination it may appear unsubstantial. In which case we can let it go. If we do that, then it’s the result of our own consideration, our own conclusion, and our own decision.

But, if we still hold faith in it, we can give it the oxygen of action and bring it into reality. 

Such is the significance of belief.
 
Have a Great Day and Do Well..