Confidence

by Gregory Allen Butler

Lack of confidence, is really nothing more than a lack of consciousness. It was projecting yourself into an imaginary future that created the thought that you were inadequate for the task. And that, living outside of the present moment, is unconsciousness. Your first step is to be aware of it and put an end to it.

All negativity comes from unconsciousness. All feelings of fear, inadequacy, complacency, and limitedness come from unconsciousness. And if the problem comes from unconsciousness, the solution comes from its opposite--consciousness.

When we are fully living in the present, we are out from beyond the mind's control. When we are living in the present moment consciously, we are connected to our true essence, the source of our being. That is our true identity. And it is one of infinite possibilities. Yesterday I quoted Rumi, and today I will repeat it" "Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart." To discover this is to be in harmony with the intention of the universe.

When you are aware of this, you are aware of your genius. Emerson speaks of this in his essay on Self-Reliance: "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried…A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance that does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope."

What did it matter to Roger Bannister that no one had ever run a four-minute mile? What did it matter to the Wright brothers that no one had ever been successful in creating an airplane? The power that presided in them was new in nature. They accepted that it was given to them.

Without this self-knowledge, this consciousness of who you are, you may well experience failure after failure. Because without that, there is no inspiration, no motivation, no meaning. Can you imagine Einstein's life if he instead decided to try his ability on being a plumber, or a tax accountant? When he discovered his true calling, his path became effortless joy, even if he did on occasion walk outdoors without his pants.

Can you imagine the frustration and boredom that JFK would have experienced if he decided to be a soybean farmer? What if Picasso decided to become a barber? People's haircuts would be pretty strange looking.

Be true to yourself.

If you feel a lack of confidence beginning a new endeavor, ask yourself why you are doing it. If the motivation comes from fear or guilt then you most likely your fears are well grounded. True motivation comes from an unlimited source of power; when you have that, your success is assured. Don't take a 1,000 mile car trip with only a couple gallons of fuel and no money or credit cards to buy more. Without any doubt, you are going to run out of gas. And that is what happens when we undertake a big endeavor without the proper motivation. We run out of gas. We come up short. We fail again. We start to doubt our self.

When we know ourselves, when we are inspired to do something, failures are not final outcomes. We learn from our experience, and like Edison, we tell our self we know one more way of how not to do what we are attempting to do.

Give your full attention to when inspiration and motivation appear. These are the portals into your unlimited ability. This is how we can discover what has meaning for us, for that is where inspiration and motivation come from. When you discover something that you can put your spirit and mind into whole-heartedly, you are ahead of the game.

It's like a football player who is never used, but finally gets into a game and discovers a fumbled football right in front of him. It's time to live in the present, pick up the ball, and run to the goal line.

If you discover your true passion in life, then you can forget about the past and all of your unfulfilled dreams. This is now. Your body, mind and soul are all in harmony. You are now for the first time making conscious choices. No longer are you a mind reacting out of fear to a phantom future. You are an infinite spiritual being manifesting your vision of life. As Albert Einstein expressed it, "Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions."

Edison imagined the light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell imagined a telephone. Gandhi imagined an India free of the British Empire. Nelson Mandela imagined a South Africa free of apartheid.

These imaginations became reality not because they were easy goals of attainment. They were realized because, in each instance, body, heart, mind, and soul, were working together.

Failure was not an option. It was never even considered. The power of a fully committed and motivated person cannot be denied.