Lesson #5: doubt / confidence

Written by on March 2, 2024

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Lesson #5

I fast from doubt.     

I feast on confidence!

Where does doubt come from?   It derives primarily from our comparing ourselves to others and deciding we are inadequate.  Not tall enough.  Not pretty enough.  Not rich enough.  Not strong enough. Not smart enough.   Not from the right neighborhood, the right race, the right state, the right country, the right hemisphere, and on and on and on and on.

As humans we are impressionable creatures.  There’s a billion-dollar industry devoted to convincing us to buy or do things because the leaders of that industry KNOW that we can be influenced.  And so we are constantly comparing ourselves to someone else’s idea of who and what we should be.

I am writing to ask you to consider this idea.  It is a question I ask myself every day, and every day, I make a little more progress.

What would happen if I gave up self-doubt?  

What would happen if instead of hesitating, instead of overthinking……..what would happen if I triumphed over doubt?   My thoughts, my actions, my words, my smile, would cause people to say:

Here is a person who has triumphed!

 

“Here is a person who has triumphed over doubt.  Here is a person who is living his dream.  Here is a person whose faith is stronger than human circumstance.”  My self talk would change from

I am not ready.  I don’t have the time.  I don’t have the money.  What if people reject me.  I hate talking to strangers.”   TO…..

I am divine!

I am divine.  I am powerful.  I am connected to the infinite divine power, the very loving presence of god.  I reject doubt.  I step forward in a shining burst of light.  I am the radiant being that will bring MY SPECIAL GIFT to the world.  And no matter what form that gift actually takes, it will always be an expression of love.  I am the one to bring a smile to a stranger.  I am the one to offer a gentle touch to the one in despair.  I am the one to speak for those too depressed and beaten down to stand. I am the light and love of god in this world and I am FREE to be me!  I am the fullness of all I came here to be.’

Think about this and realize that the change from doubt to confidence can take place in just one instant…. in the flick of a thought.

Let me put this truth out there right now:

You are a radiating center of divine love, mighty to attract your own good and to radiate good to others. 

Why is it so hard for us to see that?   When do we come to believe in ourselves?  When do we look inward to find answers?  When do we cast out the doubt caused by comparing ourselves to others?

How powerful are you?

Exactly how powerful are you?   What is your true nature?     Deep questions, indeed, but the answers are simple:  You are a divine being having a human experience—not a human being having a divine experience.   You are spirit.  You are love, and you are capable of great things with just “the flick of a thought.”

Jesus said, “He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also.”

And William Wordsworth wrote:  “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.  The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, hath had elsewhere its setting.  And cometh from afar.  Not in entire forgetfulness and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God who is our home.” ….  Wow!

Great athletes and artists

Let’s back up a moment and consider athletes and artists.   We witness weekly incredible feats of speed, strength, and endurance.  In fact, Olympic records and sporting accomplishments happen so much that we need books to track them.  And there is always a new athlete ready to break a record everyone thought was “unbreakable.”

For centuries, we have been creating great sculpture, architecture, painting, music, and dance.  As if Beethoven, Chopin, Perlman, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen were not enough, we see daily on the internet video after video of child prodigies playing violin, piano, guitar, drums.

With all this greatness around us, with all these miracles, why do we consider ourselves so small and powerless?   Why do most of us not get much done?

We simply believe all these athletes, painters, composers, musicians are different.  We believe we are normal and they are geniuses.   The differences are found in the mind and heart.   Charles Fillmore writes:

 

 

 

God never performs miracles.”

“God never performs miracles.  If by miracle is meant a departure from universal law.  Whatever the prophets did was done by the operation of laws inherent in Being and open to the discovery of every man.”

And Eric Butterworth writes in DISCOVER THE POWER WITHIN, “Jesus was not a worker of magic, a performer of feats of the miraculous.  He was essentially a teacher.  True, he demonstrated unusual power, even over the elements; but he explained that this was an evidence of the power that comes to ANY man when he makes the discovery in himself of the great within.  Jesus’ goal was to help everyone—you and me—to understand the great potential within, and to help us make the breakthrough for ourselves.”

Wow!   Just give it some consideration.   Think about your real potential.  And think about doubt and fear.  Your Facebook page is full of messages like “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” “I have failed over and over again and that is why I succeed,”  and my favorite, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”   What part does doubt play in your daily decisions?   What part does fear play?   What “miracle” could you accomplish if you shed doubt and fear and lived from your true place of confidence and power?

–Peace, Bill

Love Offering / Donate Here

Bill Babin

is available to speak / teach / play music / consult at your

ministry / martial arts academy / convention / event

602.692.3723     bill@billbabin.com



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