Choices

Forgive me while I philosophize for a moment...

I've been thinking a lot lately about some of the personal qualities most revered by our culture. Specifically: confidence, faith, and courage. Confidence in particular is one that I've thought a lot about over the past several years. Self-confidence has always seemed to me to have a kind of mystical, paradoxical quality to it. I've looked sometimes at those people with remarkable self-confidence and thought how impressive it was, how lucky they were to have such intrinsic, unshakable belief in themselves. The more I think about it, though, the more convinced I am that it's not luck, and it's not intrinsic. Beliefs aren't based on luck, and they're not in-born; they're based on choice, to a certain extent. The difference between a person with self-confidence and a person without is not that the person with self-confidence was born under a lucky star. The difference is that a person with self-confidence chooses to stand up and say, "I believe I am a worthwhile person, and I will not be passed by, denigrated, or ignored. I will demand the most from life, because I deserve it, and I will reach for my dreams, because I can accomplish anything." On the other hand, a person without self-confidence often acquiesces to being overlooked, abused, and undervalued. Self-confidence, so highly revered, is really nothing more than choosing to believe in yourself.

Faith is similar, I think. By faith I mean seemingly unassailable fundamental beliefs in forces greater than ourselves. Forces like Love, or God, or the Laws of Karma. I think when it comes down to it, every individual with strong faith has at some level simply chosen to believe and to live accordingly.

Courage, too, is just another matter of choice. Those without courage see frightening obstacles before them and decide that it would be best to accept failure as inevitable before circumstance proves it conclusively. Courageous individuals simply choose to ignore their fear and try. Of course, all of these things are tied together. I'm sure that when you have self-confidence and faith in something transcendent, making the choice to behave courageously becomes much easier.

Confidence, faith, and courage. Each one boils down to a choice, to taking that first heart-stopping step resolutely forward and saying, I am, I believe, and I will. Knowing that, how can we choose not to believe, or not to act? What excuse do we have not to be amazing?