a question
in addition to being an eye-opening experience, sunday’s exercise also raised a question within me, and one for which i have no answer. so, i thought i’d open the floor to discussion.
how do you cultivate belief?
or, perhaps, how do you maintain a belief in the face of mounting evidence against it?
be it belief in yourself, or in a dream, or in destiny... or that you will some day have the pony you’ve wanted since you were four?
how do you hold onto a belief, and keep it alive, and nurture it, and keep believing if the world seems to be telling you, “it’s not gonna happen, kid...”?
i’m not speaking in the abstract about the “how.” i mean practically. realistically.
and i’m asking sincerely... how do you do it?
3 comments:
This is hard to answer because the word "belief" is more solid that the word, say, "dream." I--because of my training in literature and literary criticism and critical thinking--reshape a belief when I uncover evidence.
About the pony, however; I was a girl who wanted a horse. No one was going to give me a horse. I gave myself one when I was a full-on adult with the funds, time, and sense of duty to have such a thing. Owning a horse was not the same as the dream of having a horse. It was so much harder and so much better.
I don't think I am answering your question, but that may be because I'm not sure I understand.
I'm also not convinced I'm the best person to answer the question, because I've been known to see a mountain of evidence and say "Hmm, perhaps I should do something else." But there are times when you do need to climb the mountain.
I find it easier to focus on the first steps, which are often specific and familiar, rather than the whole route, which can be too overwhelming.
It also helps not to be too specific. Someone focused on debuting their film at Cannes might miss that it'd more easily find an audience at Sundance.
Savour your victories: take them as proof that you can succeed in that area. Try to dismiss your setbacks: they don't prove you can't succeed, just that you didn't succeed that time. (I know this may be as hard to achieve as your actual dream!)
And look for other people who have succeeeded in spite of facing similar odds as you. I guess this doesn't work if you want to be the first woman in the NHL, but for most things there are people who've faced bigger mountains (as well as the annoying sort who just dealt with a minor hill).
okay, i'm actually glad to see i'm not the only one who doesn't know how to answer that question. i thought maybe it was something easy and obvious to answer, and i was perhaps not seeing some very simple solution.
maybe belief (or a specific belief) is just something inherent. you either have it or you don't. like those contestants who trot out on American Idol, completely off-key, but they truly believe (despite the evidence to the contrary) that they're great singers.
maybe it's not something that can be manufactured or produced out of thin air. it's either there, or it isn't.
or maybe i still have no idea what i'm talking about and haven't actually managed to articulate my question properly.
that said, i think matt has some useful tips for hanging onto, or nurturing, an existing belief (however thin it might be) by looking for examples of success. proof that whatever it is isn't impossible or unfathomable. that sort of "if they can do it, so can i" type reinforcement when a belief is eroding.
(and p.s.: matt, very nice incorporation of the mountain metaphor/motif! :-))
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