Fuel yourself, Believe in yourself
An enthusiastic participant in a recent training program asked me an interesting question. Many people think hard work, dedication and discipline is most important for one‘s success, what do you think is important? I told him, these are all engines to run our life but what‘s the use of engine when you don‘t fuel it efficiently. Self-belief is that fuel which charges us from inside and makes us believe our work and dedication is taking in a direction worth giving our time for. If you don‘t believe in your abilities, who will and why should they? I have seen so many people wasting their skills and talents, self-doubt is a termite eating away many lives, and with out self-belief we are like an open tap without container.
Root cause of the entire problem is, we live our lives hiding our weakness and never understand what our strengths really are. Whenever I walk into my training sessions and ask participants how many of you know your strengths I hardly see any show of hands, and when I flip the question and ask how many know your weaknesses most of the people put up their hands. I am tempted to put the blame on schools for only emphasising and pointing at our weaknesses, deep down it's just not the problem with schools or parents. We are so consumed by our weakness; we don‘t let our strengths surface. Many forget we are our raw material, which we use to build our life. If we don‘t know what we are made of, how can we make a life, let alone a living.
Individuals can only bridge the gap of ability vs. capability, playing by his/her strengths and having at-most faith on one‘s self. We all need to take a purposeful journey within and do a deep introspection of our strengths and abilities. Work on your weaknesses, face them and overcome them, and have a long list of strengths, which can forecast on your future opportunities. Anyone who finds clarity on these two, can pick a career to excel and a life full of happiness and containment.