But I’m talking about faith in oneself—the hope without strong evidence that at some point, no matter your lot in life, it will get a little or even a lot better.
As an entrepreneur, as an artist, as a caregiver, and as someone with a history of suicide in their family; I’ve had to cultivate and create a good deal of faith for myself.
Faith is important but taking action is essential—the need to continuously be searching for glimmers of light in the darkness, finding ways to set myself up for little wins.
Why? Because faith without action is meaningless.
I’ve noticed that in my own world, and in the lives of countless people I respect and admire; the foundation of any personal success great or small is reaching out for temporary support and then sustainable support.
Temporary support can be: asking for directions at a gas station, government assistance, a crisis line, a bank loan.
Sustainable support involves: reaching out to friends, family, a therapist, and/or mentors.
Reaching out for support can feel like a little win, but over a period of time the support you receive results in big gains.
When I was in crisis, temporary support was asking for a day off of work; permanent support was identifying and then reaching out to the positive influences in my life.
As a caregiver, temporary support is a glass of wine (mwahaha!); permanent support is creating of lists of people and then reaching out to them and asking for their support in my caregiving.
In both cases, the little wins snowballed into huge gains—making both experiences much easier to bear.
Other little wins to help fuel your faith include:
• Positive self-talk , i.e. your inner coach—and no positivity doesn’t make it all better, but it sure as hell can be pretty helpful. A few years ago when the going got pretty tough, I made a conscious effort that when I screwed up on something, I would stop calling myself nasty names and instead would chalk up the experience to be a lesson learned.
• Self-education. In seeking out and discovering new information, you evolve, and you find out that you’re not the only one going through whatever it is you’re going through. You learn how to get to the next level. Self education helps you move a little faster toward what you want—like the cheat codes on the old Nintendo games (I was a big Konami Contra fan: Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start.)
Whatever it is you want that you’re not currently getting is, at its very essence, important… and so are you. Keep the faith and keep up that hustle.
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