The first step to all significant progress is a firm belief in yourself that you can do it. I always like it when that belief is trending toward being delusional about what you are capable of.

The more faith you have in your ability to triumph no matter what, the more progress you will make in life. It’s more like a natural law.

You do yourself a lot of disservices and deprive the world of the wonders that lie in you when you don’t believe in yourself and what you are capable of.

Often, the only thing standing between you and your full potential is the discipline to fixate on a spot until you have developed. But alas, the mirage of distraction that locks around is so compelling that you will rather entertain them than disciplining yourself to do what’s most important.

I found a quote in a book I’m currently reading that’s got me thinking ever since.

“…I know this pathway [the pathway of truth] looks barren at its commencement (truth always does, it is only error and delusion which are at first inviting and fascinating,) but if you undertake to walk it; if you perseveringly discipline your mind, eradicating your weaknesses, and allowing your soul-forces and spiritual powers to unfold themselves, you will be astonished at the magical changes which will be brought about in your outward life.”

The pathway of truth always looks barren at the beginning. It always feels like I am doing the reading but I can’t feel I am getting better, or I am learning the skill but I have still not gotten to where I wanted to be, or I am applying the pressure but it seems as if I have remained in the same spot since I started. Hence, the illusion of barrenness. Yes, it’s an illusion because in the real sense when you follow the path of truth (discipline, focus and virtue), you are like a planted seed. And like all seeds, you must die first before you can rise again. Again, it’s a natural law.

Before you can see the result of your self-belief in your outward life, time will pass, sacrifices will be made and you might even be ridiculed. But as with all natural phenomena, you will rise far above your greatest imagination if you stay on the path. And when nothing else seems to be working for you, it is also your self-belief alone that can come to the rescue.

Self-belief is so important that without it, you can do nothing.

When I gained admission into the university I was hardly the reading type. That habit was good enough to get me through secondary school but obviously wouldn’t get me anywhere in the University. So I failed my first semester in year one. However, I was surrounded by those who had between 4.6 and 5 out of 5. Immediately, I told myself that if they can do it, there is nothing to stop me from doing it as well. All it will take is that I read more and more. And that was what I did. I believed in myself enough to think I am as good as the best in the class. And that was all I needed; a belief.

Was I as good as them academically? In retrospect, I don’t think so. But what does it matter? That belief propelled me to give it more effort, and more discipline and I came out triumphant.

Until you have it in you, it cannot come out of you. What you have within is what you can manifest without.

Always note that.

I like to say that what you believe doesn’t have to be true. Yes, it doesn’t. Just like my belief about being as good as the best wasn’t empirically true.

What you believe only needs to be useful and sufficient as a propellant to catapult you to the manifestation of the best version of yourself.

In the past couple of days, I have been doing something. In my journal, I write again and again about how proud I am of myself. Yes, I am proud of myself.

Because I have said that a lot of times, I have so much now believe in myself that I wake up every morning with the mentality that I can not disappoint myself in this pursuit. So I am fired up to crush it. And crushing, I do it daily. It all starts from within.

I know you might have been wounded a lot, failed so much and attempted far too many times that you have lost all your self-belief and all that’s left within you is nothing but self-doubt and self-condemnation at the worst. Life can be cruel. I am sorry.

Yet, the only way to get yourself out and give yourself yet another fighting chance is to believe once again in the hero in you. Awaken the dreamer boy/girl in you and ascend. How can you do that? Let me take a stab at offering some options.

How can you increase self-belief?

What I have found from extensive observation and much studying is that lack of success is the biggest killer of self-belief.

You tried something but failed to have a good result. You gave your best to prepare for something but you still didn’t meet the cut-off. You look back at your journey and you can’t point to a few things that have worked for you. All you can see is a failure and more failures and even more failures. Then something starts to whisper within you… 

It says things like maybe you are not that good enough. Oh no, maybe you are not good at all. Oh no, maybe the universe has even conspired against you and your effort can’t ever change that. You try to fight that thought but every data point that you can look back to seems to agree with the whispers. And so you can only fight for so long and now, you have agreed with those whispers. You have agreed that you can not do it, that it’s not meant for you, and that your effort doesn’t count any more than your beliefs matter.

Last week and this week have been one of the best I’ve had in a long time. It’s one of those weeks I would rate 5/5. Perfecto!!!

But what was different about the week and how is it relevant to the rejuvenation of your self-belief?

I started doing something different. I set up each day in a way that I will start with success with at least one thing. You see if lack of success is the killer of self beliefs, one can as well engineer success in their day to boost self-belief. And that’s what I did.

I have set up a schedule that means when I wake up in the morning I accomplish a thing or a few things. Once I accomplish those few things, I allow myself to think very well about what a great success I’ve just heard. I tell myself then that I can’t let go of this feeling so I must complete every other thing I’ve set to do today as well. And I go on to do them. Every one of them with great strength and a delusional belief that no matter what I have set on my to-do list, I will do them. The result is that you have a David Alade who is ever more confident in his abilities.

Don’t think those early morning things are a big deal. Well, I have programmed my mind to think of them as a big deal but they may not necessarily be. Here they are…

(1.) I pray when I wake up. I don’t usually do this every day but I want to and I know it is easy to do.

(2.) I do some 5 minutes of exercise.

(3.) I study for one hour and

(4) I will write for another one hour.

Those are things that matter to me and are easy to do early in the morning for me to be able to record initial successes. You need to find what matters to you and is easy to accomplish as well. Do them first early in the morning. Start your day with a story of success, think about what success you just had and you will see how effective that can be at rejuvenating your self-belief.

This will work, believe me. But also remember that the nature of truth is that it is barren at commencement. Eventually though, like the seed planted by a riverside, it will flourish and living water will flow out of it.

That’s how I do mine. It’s not the only way though. But whatever way you employ to rejuvenate your self-belief, I know for certain that it has to include ensuring that you have deliberate successes built into your day. If what kills self-belief is a lack of success, then an abundance of success should awaken it. I wish you a constant awakening!