Doubt Not and Believe in Yourself

Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.

- Allen James

Doubt Not and Believe in Yourself

The world we live in can be filled with tragedy.  I was reminded of this over this entire week as my family dealt with the death of a loved one.  This particular tragedy was not unexpected.  We all knew it was coming and we did everything we could to plan for an easing of the way.  Still, even with all of our preparation, the finality of death takes its measure.

In a particularly difficult moment, I sat talking with my daughter Annie about personal power and what it means to possess power as we reasoned about the feeling of loss we shared.  I put my arm around her and felt her tear stained cheek against mine.  It was a time when all possible feelings of power seemed to be lost in the mist of emotional fog accompanying a terrible storm.  In fact, this moment took me back to a time when I was very young, on a day when the winds were howling from the mountains to the East. 

The wind hurled down the canyons with speeds toping seventy miles per hour.  I could feel the power of the wind and it made me feel alive and strong inside.  I wanted to incorporate that power into my being.  So, I unzipped my coat and leaving my arms in the sleeves reached down to the right and left corners of the fabric and hoisted it above my head as if it were a sail.  As soon as I did so, the wind seized its opportunity to answer my foolishness by making me nothing more than a piece of flying debris.  But I wasn’t only debris.  I learned two important lessons from this youthful storm experience.

First, I was more than just another piece of mindless debris.  I quickly saw my folly and released the sail so I could lie safely on the ground.  I was able to use my mind to regain control of my actions regardless of what was happening in a turbulent world.  What happens in the world outside of me does not need to control what happens within my inner world.

Second, my individual actions make an impact on what happens in the world outside of me.  External circumstances do not remove personal power.  Being human means having power; specifically, the power to accomplish whatever we want.  We only lose personal power by choosing to relinquish it.

I know you will face storms throughout your life.  I have.  But, one of the blessings of age is that experience has shown me that if I will use my mind and heart to control my own actions I will be able to impact the results I achieve.  Circumstances haven’t made me who I am or who I’ll become.  They simply reveal character.  You have the power to determine what kind of life you’ll live, how you’ll live it, and how you’ll react to the storms that swirl around you.  Doubt not, believe in yourself, and use your heart and mind to accomplish whatever you want.