The Power of Believing in Yourself

Please allow me to extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Olivia Wise, the Toronto teen who died Monday afternoon. Olivia was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago after suffering a seizure on vacation. She captured our hearts with a viral video of her singing Katy Perry’s “Roar.”

Today I would like to share my thoughts on the power of you believing in yourself. The foundation of all success is the awesome power believing in yourself and self-confidence. In February 1964, a 22-year old boxer named Cassius Clay whom we all know today as Muhammad Ali defeated the heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Before and after the fight Ali said “I am the greatest.” Ali went on to become one of the greatest boxers in history. Ali had the conviction and self-belief to say he was the greatest long this before he knew he was in fact the greatest. Ali later said that he figured that if he said it enough, he would convince the world that he really was the greatest.

Do you belief so strongly in yourself that you can convince the world that you are the greatest? You can achieve anything when you believe in yourself. However, if you are filled with self-doubts, uncertainties and indecisiveness it will eat away at your self-belief and self-confidence and you will fail at whatever you are doing. Throughout my life I have had experiences where the lack of self-belief and self-confidence fuels doubts, fear of failure and fear of rejection which resulted in my goals not being realised. For example, in 2009 I started my blog, McKenzie’s Voice, but I had no specific purpose and consequently I doubted my abilities to truly capture an audience and as such it did not take long for me to stop blogging. Since September I have been blogging daily and I am enjoying it tremendously. Today I have a much stronger conviction in my abilities and as such I have eliminated self-doubt and indecisiveness from my mind when it comes to blogging. As Henry Ford said “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.” You have to believe in yourself. You have to be confident whether you think you can or you think you can’t do something.

Self-belief and self-confidence is like a magnetic force that pulls you towards the centre of gravity. It pulls you towards your deepest desires and passions. It is deep in your subconscious mind and navigates you towards your goals, dreams and success. I like to call it the feel good feeling or positive vibration – in Jamaica we would say “I man irie!” Self- confidence is a state for full alignment where you are single minded and fully focused on the realization of your goals. Self-belief and self-confidence is an antidote against naysayers. Naysayers are people who will tell you can’t do the things that are important to you. They will discourage you from pursuing your passion. They will laugh at your dreams or ridicule you for the things you are doing to realise your dreams and goals.

Allow me to share another personal example. For more than 10 years I have honed and developed my public speaking and communications skills through my involvement in the Toastmasters programme. Earlier this year I decided I wanted to move my public speaking and communication skills to completely different level. I decided I wanted to become a motivational speaker. My passion is driven by the fact that through my work in financial services I have had the opportunity to see people and the world that we live in different eyes. I have experienced the beauty of different countries and cultures around the world and I firmly believe that by sharing my stories and experiences with you and others, you will be motivated and inspired to dream. Armed with this self-belief and self-confidence I commenced implementation and execution of my plan to realize my goal to be a motivational speaker.

One of the first steps I took was to accept the nomination and then got elected vice president of education for my home club, City Centre Toastmasters Club and I was also appointed area governor for four (4) clubs in Guelph, Ontario. These two roles provided me with more opportunities to speak within the Toastmasters community. I also joined a number of speaking bureaus in the Greater Toronto Area. I also started promoting my Leaders Leave Legacy Workshop among high schools and college students as well as to community youth groups such as RESQ in Brampton, Ontario. I also joined Terry Fox Public School Council where I am currently the co-chair. In addition, to my Leaders Leave Legacy Workshop, I also started to promote my advocacy work related to social issues such as human trafficking and youth violence in the Greater Toronto Area. I also enhanced my presence on social media websites such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ to create greater visibility.

Below I share three specific things you should do to start believing in yourself

Determine your core values

Your values in life determine your beliefs, about yourself and the world around you. I am driven by respect, love and generosity. I believe the people around me should be treated with respect and shown love and generosity. This is why I am so excited about my Holiday Season Food Drive to collect non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army of Brampton. Since the launch of my food drive I am truly amazed by how many people have told me this is a noble cause and commend me for my efforts. When you believe in yourself and chose to be a good person you will find yourself to be more positive and successful in life. 

• To determine your core values ask yourself the following questions:
• What do you really believe in and stand for?
• What are your values in life?
• What qualities are you best known by others?
• What are the core principles that are guiding your relationships with others?

Be Positive (Have a Positive Attitude)

One of the key factors to start believing in yourself is the importance of having a positive attitude. In one of my previous posts titled “The Self-made Man” I spoke about being a delusional optimist. For example, despite the empirical evidence of business failures I passionately believe that my business ventures will be the one to succeed. I have a positive attitude towards life. It does not mean I take an unrealistic view of pitfalls, uncertainties and risks. It merely means I believe in what I am doing and I am empathically confident in my ability to succeed. Remember Muhammad Ali said he was the greatest long before even he himself knew he was the greatest. Consider track and field 100m and 200m sensation Usain Bolt. Before the 2012 London Olympics that he said he wanted to be a legend and after winning the double triple he said “I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live.” When you have a positive attitude you will attract positive people around you. You will attract people who share your passion and interests.

To build self-belief and self-confidence you have to be positive. In my case because of my positive attitude I am always happy and cheerful and I always have an innate belief in a bright future. It does not mean that I don’t get down and sad like others. It does not mean I am unaffected by the lack of progress or failures. It just means that because of my positive attitude I am able to bounce right back up when I hit a hurdle or an obstacle.

I expect good things to happen but I am also conscious that sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Last week someone told me I had no leadership experience and when I smiled she said you take that so calmly. It is true I respond to most things calmly but never without thinking how can I improve as a leader or what have I learned from the experience or what are the things I can do to become a better leader? 

Having a positive attitude means where others see challenges I look for opportunities. It means where others see failures, I see experiences and lessons learned. I see the good in people around me and in most situations. To build your self-belief and self-confidence you need to have a positive attitude.

Take Action

Your actions should be consistent with your core values. In my blog yesterday titled “Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Goal Setting and Success” I spoke about the grand plan for the Colonisation of Mars. Your actions to support your core values don’t have to be as grand as building rockets and spacecraft that may one day be used to transport 80,000 people to colonise the Red Planet. 

Your action should be consistent to your core values and the activities you are taking to pursue your passion. Your actions should be a reflection of your innermost values, beliefs, and expectations on the inside. This is why what you achieve in life and work will be determined more by what is going on inside of you than by any other factor. My core values are respect, love and generosity. In small ways such as leading a Holiday Season Food Drive or through inspirational blogs such as this one I am taking actions to support my core values and pursue my dreams. 

Thanks for reading my blog today and may your day and week be filled with power of believing in yourself and self-confidence.

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.