Power of Belief

Often times I assume incorrectly that people don't need as much belief placed in them and encouragement as I do. What a horrible fallacy.

My perceptions of others often place them above me - at least in some way, shape or form. This delusion keeps me silent from encouraging them and expressing appreciation for them in the things they do and who they are.

This in turn, completely blocks the Law of Reciprocity from occurring. Of course the reason for giving is not getting, but it happens to be a fact that it will somehow.

I was thinking about the power of belief on a team, work, sports, whatever. What would happen if a boss or a coach believed so strongly in the individuals on the team that he or she would be willing to take a loss just so that each member could have the opportunity to grow? What if the superstar were held back from saving the day, and the weakest member was allowed to expand their potential - but still lose?

Loyalty. That's what would happen.

I want to be on a team where they are willing to let me fail so that I can grow. And I want to possess the maturity to know when and where to stand down to let others grow. Everyone should have that right.

Piece in my "BE" puzzle

Christi and I have recently become Certified Human Behavior Consultants- which is a fancy title that means that we have a better grasp of personalities and behavior than most people. It also means that we can conduct seminars teaching this material to other people.

So obviously as I have been learning about myself, I have come to recognize patterns of thought and behaviors about myself that explains more of myself to myself- if that makes sense. But however useful that was, and is, it was really just a list of characteristics that formed a semi-correct representation of who I am. But it never felt real. There was no flesh on those bones.

Well a couple weeks ago I was going about my daily activities and a name divinely popped into my head: Jonathan. Had really no idea what that meant but I decided to go home and read about Jonathan in I Samuel. The proverbial light bulb suddenly got electricity! This was me! Flesh and bones.

I found 11 characteristics of Jonathan that encapsulated the essence of me. These are:
1. Peacemaker
2. Giver
3. Humble
4. Diplomat
5. Protector
6. Friend
7. Communicator
8. Influencer
9. Confidant
10. Loyal
11. Wise

So in the Be, Do, Have sequence of life, I felt like this was a huge piece of me that reflected who I am. It's my belief that once you know who you are, everything that you do emanates from that knowledge and foundation. So now the challenge that I have is learning to soak in truly who I am so that I can overflow congruently.

Beginning

The past few months have been a pretty frustrating - but great, time for me. Great because I'm associated with people who believe and trust in me to a really huge degree. I also am given a large amount of freedom which is amazing. The frustrating part has been a lot of unanswered questions that I've had.

Questions like:

Who am I?
What am I good at?
What should I be doing?
What could I be doing?
How would I design my life if I could?
And so on....

The funny thing is it seems like when you have very few options there are very few doors to walk through and so the decision is easy.

To illustrate. We don't have cable TV service meaning we get nothing. Not nothing in the the sense of nothing good- literally nothing, no channels. We've done this on purpose because it gives us more time to do other things that we value more than watching TV.

However, when I go to someone's house, I usually enjoy watching TV. The problem is that if I have too many choices I get frustrated because I feel like I'm missing something. So I may find 8 different shows to watch and I don't know what to watch. It would almost be simpler if I had 10 channels to watch and thus far fewer choices, and thus less confusion.

So back to my point. I'm finding that my life is similar. I feel like I have SO many choices, so many doors that I could walk through that I don't know what to do - so I do nothing. And that's been the source of my frustration lately.

What to do? What to think about? What to read? What to listen to? And on and on.

Well I finally had a piece of clarity happen for me last week that was pretty huge. It answered a big piece of the puzzle that was missing in my "BE" puzzle.

And I'll get to the answer later...