Sunday 17 April 2016

How Your Faith affects your Success Part 1

What is Faith?
Faith is the complete trust and believe in someone or something. Today we are going to discuss about faith in someone, and that someone is you. How much faith do you have in yourself? Do you know the relationship between your faith and your success?

I am going to give you a true story, names have been changed for privacy purposes. Mary and Jane got employed in a marketing company on a similar date. Mary’s academic papers indicated that she was a A student and always at the top of her classes unlike Jane who was an average student. It was only natural that the company expected Mary to be a better performer as compared to Jane. The company expected that Mary would bring in more customers, more sales and higher profits. Ironically at the end of the financial year, Jane's performance was almost twice better than Mary's and she looked highly motivated too. Mary on the other hand was demotivated, her performance was below target. So what happened to Mary? How was it possible that an average student became a better marketer than an A student?

Mary and Jane came from two different academic institutions. Mary was taught that getting good grades was the key to get a good job, earn good money, have a good life and this was success as far as she was concerned, what else would she ask for. What they never taught her was what comes after securing a good job. On the other hand Jane was taught that good grades were not enough to make her a successful person, securing a good job was not the end but the beginning. She was taught that in order to succeed in life she had to believe in herself and her abilities to handle new situations and challenges. This little aspect differentiated Mary and Jane out of the academic world. Education is important, it is a key to success in life, but education alone is not enough, we must have knowledge on how to handle and use what we have acquired academically to achieve success. How do you build faith in yourself?

“Education doesn’t just take place in stuffy classrooms and university buildings, it can happen everywhere, every day to every person.” – Richard Branson

Belief in Yourself
Faith is believing in yourself even when the whole world does not. The worst thing you can do in life is to stop believing in yourself. There will come a time when no one is going believe in you, that does not mean you have to do the same. You are the only person who knows you best, no one is ever going to know you better than you do apart from God. Seeking approval from other people all the time is not going to take you anywhere, remember everyone has been called for a purpose and each calling is unique. The Lord God Almighty has called you for that purpose and He has planted a seed in you, it is this seed that gives you ideas, prompts you to do a certain task or follow a particular project. No one else has been called so, yes I know many can be called for a specific mission, but every mission has a particular task that only you and no one else can fulfill. People are going to see things differently from the way you do, that does not make you superior or inferior to anyone else, it simply means you are bringing unique ideas to the table to enhance the final product.

Belief in Your Ideas.
Faith is believing in your ideas however small they may look. I work in an airline industry I have had I had a privilege of working in the cargo department for three years as a Ramp Agent and Load Master. Our manager was a good leader and he had introduced brainstorming sessions once a month where everyone including the loading agents could point out shortcomings and give suggestions on how to improve operations. The loading agents used to shy off at first because they were not used to the idea of giving their views in such a forum, this was a forum that had powerful people in the company and they felt intimidated by their presence, however little by little they warmed up to the forum and gave in their contributions. I remember very well, how 90% of the the ideas that were implemented and became successful came from the ideas that were initially thought to be insignificant. The ideas were small yes, one of them they included making a small alterations to some of the loading equipment to avoid wear and tear. The changes not only deterred wear and tear, they greatly improved the rate of consumption of power consumption, reduced manpower per equipment and saved time in loading and money for repairs. This idea alone saved the company over $10,000 per month. Was it a big idea? Most people thought it was a small idea. Did it come from an engineer in the company? It came from a loading agent who saw a problem, came up with a possible solution and someone believed in him but he believed in his idea first.

You have to belief in your ideas first in order to succeed. When you believe in your ideas, it becomes easy to convince others to support you in the journey to drive your idea, project, or mission to a positive end. People will believe you more when you believe in your self and in the agenda you are bringing to the table.

Belief in Your Potential
Faith is believing in your potential. Have you ever been surprised when people tell you how good you are in something you never thought you were good at? It has happened to me many times, this blog is a living testimony of a result of believing in my potential through what others saw in me. People have seen your potential by the time they point out that you are good in something more so if it comes from trusted people and unexpected people or strangers. If you hear it severally from different people it is time you believed in it and move on with it.

Your boss may entrust you with a task at work out of the blue not in line with your key responsibilities, most of us will either find an excuse as to why we cannot do it, or complain of additional workload. Minority will gladly take it up and see it to conclusion. These are the same people who move easily and quickly up the career ladder and we keep on wondering how they manage to do it. They believe in their potential not only in handling normal tasks but also what has been entrusted to them by faith.

Take a chance. It’s the best way to test yourself. Have fun and push boundaries.” – Richard Branson


When your boss decides to give you a task, it is because they know you can handle it, they have seen your capabilities, take it up and do it, do not give yourself excuses as to why you cannot handle it. In our culture we have a saying that states “ If they believe in you, believe in yourself” One common mistake most people make is belittling themselves and their capabilities, yes you have to be humble and not blow your own trumpet, but that does not bar you from performing your tasks with confidence and to completion.

Belief in God
Faith is believing in God and his promises. If God has said he made you in his own image, believe in it. He is the greatest master Creator of the universe and everything in it. He is the master of knowledge and He says that nothing is impossible through Jesus Christ as long as we walk in faith. When we lack faith we have no stand, we have no focus, we can easily be swayed and tossed around, we hand over our power to others and give them a ticket to use us to accomplish their goals and not ours; this is what many politicians do, they take advantage of our little faith and use us to accomplish their goals. If you have faith, you know your purpose, you have a clear vision and you know the path to take to achieve that mission. Let us move by faith, let us believe in God, let us believe in what God has called us to be, conquerors , high achievers,winners in everything we set out to do.


****Best Words of Advise***
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6


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