An extract from 'Words To Live By' Vol 1
By Simon Lawrence
‘What if I mess it up?’ she said in a small voice, lacking any faith in her own abilities.
‘You will for sure then!’ I smiled at her… but she looked a little disappointed.
‘Why do you say that Simon, you are usually so positive!?’
William Blake the painter and the poet penned the words, If the Sun and the Moon should doubt, they’d immediately go out. We should hold these words very close to our heart. I wish I had written them, how wonderful it would be if we had these in our mind before we started anything new…
Having faith in yourself and a belief without doubt is the way out of the paralysing fear that stops us achieving the magnificent life we hold as a desire in our consciousness.
It’s ok and natural to have moments when we are nervous and unsure, I’ve felt it whenever I’ve had to stand up and speak in front of an audience, all of my old feelings come rushing to me, they flood my mind, fog it entirely if I let them… the fear that I might open my mouth and nothing is heard, or I look at someone close to the lectern and they might raise their eyes at me with a hint of... 'who in hell does he think he is?'
But I have learned this initial lack of confidence affects all of us at certain times, it has probably been there right at the beginning of every great human accomplishment. Our self-doubt comes from the knowing that all of us grade and praise or blame whatever someone else does, our own ego makes a judgement based on our perception of whatever that thing is.
But perfectionism in an imperfect world is a perilous state, we must forget our doubts and our fears and get on with our task, whatever it is and do the very best we can.
If we begin with a thought that we will fail in some way, then certainly we will, and if we push aside any doubt and look to the thoughts that it will be extraordinary, and to keep imagining that, despite anything that trips us along the way, then it will be that instead… it will be astonishing.
I know that is hard to believe, but try it and I promise it will be exactly that. You have more power in you to create the life you choose than you have ever been told or taught.
So I then said to her… ‘if you think only of a mess, you will surely achieve it, but imagine the praise and the smiles as you hand it over and it will be that instead.'
We should think of our mind as a sat-nav, we set the destination which is our end goal and begin.
Doubt will make us deviate, so we must ignore any niggling uncertainty or what others might say. We must keep our sights focused exactly on our aim, and then we will get there as surely as our car journey ends exactly where we set the address into our little electronic contraption.
By Simon Lawrence
‘What if I mess it up?’ she said in a small voice, lacking any faith in her own abilities.
‘You will for sure then!’ I smiled at her… but she looked a little disappointed.
‘Why do you say that Simon, you are usually so positive!?’
William Blake the painter and the poet penned the words, If the Sun and the Moon should doubt, they’d immediately go out. We should hold these words very close to our heart. I wish I had written them, how wonderful it would be if we had these in our mind before we started anything new…
Having faith in yourself and a belief without doubt is the way out of the paralysing fear that stops us achieving the magnificent life we hold as a desire in our consciousness.
It’s ok and natural to have moments when we are nervous and unsure, I’ve felt it whenever I’ve had to stand up and speak in front of an audience, all of my old feelings come rushing to me, they flood my mind, fog it entirely if I let them… the fear that I might open my mouth and nothing is heard, or I look at someone close to the lectern and they might raise their eyes at me with a hint of... 'who in hell does he think he is?'
But I have learned this initial lack of confidence affects all of us at certain times, it has probably been there right at the beginning of every great human accomplishment. Our self-doubt comes from the knowing that all of us grade and praise or blame whatever someone else does, our own ego makes a judgement based on our perception of whatever that thing is.
But perfectionism in an imperfect world is a perilous state, we must forget our doubts and our fears and get on with our task, whatever it is and do the very best we can.
If we begin with a thought that we will fail in some way, then certainly we will, and if we push aside any doubt and look to the thoughts that it will be extraordinary, and to keep imagining that, despite anything that trips us along the way, then it will be that instead… it will be astonishing.
I know that is hard to believe, but try it and I promise it will be exactly that. You have more power in you to create the life you choose than you have ever been told or taught.
So I then said to her… ‘if you think only of a mess, you will surely achieve it, but imagine the praise and the smiles as you hand it over and it will be that instead.'
We should think of our mind as a sat-nav, we set the destination which is our end goal and begin.
Doubt will make us deviate, so we must ignore any niggling uncertainty or what others might say. We must keep our sights focused exactly on our aim, and then we will get there as surely as our car journey ends exactly where we set the address into our little electronic contraption.