Faith (as written in the dictionary) is one’s complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
For me, faith isn’t something that is given to you by God through prayer or whatever else the older generation rely on. I believe it’s the inner confidence one has in themselves that gives them that spark to achieve whatever they want in life. It seems cliché and cringy but I think it’s true.
I’ve always heard my mother say to someone in self-doubt ‘have faith in yourself and everything will work out’. I have never really thought about what she was saying, it just seemed like some less dismissive way of saying ‘ah, you’ll be grand’. But over the past few days I thought about it more and realised the deeper meaning behind it.
‘Have faith in yourself’. Keyword = yourself.
I started thinking, and I now completely understand what she means when she says this. Having self-belief is one of the most powerful things a person can have. With a tool like this, you are giving yourself the chance to cross off everything on your bucket list without thinking twice. Whether it be jumping from a plane 14,000 feet high or wanting to finish all of your homework and study on a Friday night.
Whatever your aims/goals/aspirations may be, you’ll get nowhere unless you have the faith in yourself to accomplish it. Without faith, negativity will consume you and ruin any chance you have of living your life the way you want it. A powerful weapon like self-belief is a motivator, an inner drive that will make you feel good about yourself and give you that same feeling you have when you get 90% in an Irish test you spent hours studying on.
Recently, I came across this quote said by Martin Luther King Jr., someone who was a prime example of how self belief can change an entire country for the better.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Just like a stairs, life is a constant uphill challenge. But when you get to the top of the stairs looking down on what you have achieved, the feeling is exhilarating. If you ever are half way up the stairs and have any doubt about how many steps are left until you reach the top, just think - ‘have faith in yourself and everything will work out’.
Because honestly, it will.
MB