"Self-belief"

Many a legend across ages and geographies contributed to this universe and mankind in some significant way or the other, making them great and remembered. So are there living legends, who we find in the various fields of human endeavor!

Individual greatness apart, the trait common to them all is their unflinching ‘faith-in-self’ and the resolve to achieve what they believed they could in their chosen field, lacking which, they could never have progressed to accomplish what they did.

One needn’t be dissuaded by the thought that an exceptionally gifted few, aided by favorable circumstances alone can attain greatness. Instead, anybody with purpose can make the best possible efforts to be ‘somebody’ and not remain a ‘nobody’ in life. This effort put in by individuals makes a certain qualitative addition not just to their individual lives but to the society they are part of too!

Mere desire to achieve something noteworthy in life does not take anybody anywhere. One has to strive to hone the requisite qualities to the optimum, ‘self-belief’ being the supreme of them all. This is one quality, parents and teachers would do well to inculcate in children.

Let us briefly look at what factors ‘self-belief’ should ideally be based on. Blind, unsubstantiated belief can bring distress more often than not. 

‘Self-belief’ is consequential to the person’s strength and competence, realized through continuous process of conscious self-assessment. Any individual would do well to attempt an honest and as realistic a self-assessment as possible to eliminate misplaced belief. So much so, a wise man can ill-afford to err in assessing both his capabilities and inadequacies in order to gain self-belief true to his potential. This exercise is more challenging than imagined.

To obtain a fairly good assessment, one needs to employ an open mind. For misread values perforce result in needless pitfalls in life.

Notwithstanding the amount of caution exercised, one can’t help but miss certain dark corners beyond the precincts of normal vision. This inherent vulnerability and unforeseen circumstantial changes too can spell doom, but has to be accepted as something beyond human logic and endeavor. This hapless state is universally attributed to God’s will or to unknown reasons, based on individual conviction and philosophical orientation.

Most of us adore ‘thrillers’, be they stories, novels or films where the element of surprise is the very essence of their appeal. But are we game enough for the ‘expect the unexpected part’ we so marvel at in those thrillers happening to our lives, especially the scary ones? No, we desire all things to occur as expected and in no manner than we wished them to!

But then, however judiciously planned and executed, things could still go awry at times. Those exactly are situations where resilience and ‘self-belief’ can save the spirit from a possible demise and sustain the person to regroup the battered and scattered faculties and bounce back to make a better attempt yet again.

Sports persons are akin to fighters with a ‘never-say-die’ spirit. They conjure up enough resilience to stay alive in adversity only to spring back at an opportune time. Not all can be sports persons but sure can be fighters and achievers in life, if only they have the said spirit and that all-important ‘self-belief’.