Faith is the substance of hope (Part I)

Have you ever been in a situation, where you were given a certain task that you have no previous experience in?

How did you overcome that? Did you give up and said you've done it before and hence don't even attempt it? Or did you find a way to accomplish the task despite the odds?

My personal experience was when I was task to make a presentation to a Chinese company, which is publicly listed in Singapore, about why they will need to engage a team of professionals who are trained in the management of relations with the investment community in the region. (We got the contract.)

My first immediate reaction was, "but I can't do it as I have never done it before!" The reply to my response was, "if you were hungry and there is a bowl of rice in front of you, the only thing is you can only eat it with a pair of chopsticks; and let's say you don't know how to use chopsticks, would you learn or walk away from the food?"

I believe we all have been in situations like this before, so do we find a way to get it done or do we walk away from it?

There could be times when we did get it done and there are also instances that we walk away from it all; for better or worse.

Some people may find it really absurd that if you have never had the experience, then how would you know what to do? There will also be some who says, when you believe it, you will see it.

Let's not get spiritual about it but look at it not based on intellect, logic, or reasoning but look at it from the marvels that the human brain can do. At least this way, we know that everyone can do it, provided they put their mind into it and not just merely dream about it.

Let's look at some examples that we can all relate to. For instance, sales people face situations where, either they are selling services or products, they will often have to deal with questions like what are their track record, success stories, if they are selling services.

When it comes to products, they will often need to leverage on the products' brand name. Simply because people trust brands that they are familiar with. Brands that deliver on their promises. Same with services, people want to trust that you, the sales person, can deliver on your promise.

I think, for most people, the toughest is for them to have confidence or trust themselves. We sometimes are not sure if we are up to the task, if we might screw up, if we might look like a fool. And that's why for some of us we gave up on a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, a singer, a veterinarian.

Hence, for situations like this, how do we have confidence in ourselves, even for tasks that we have no apparent previous experience in? How do we rise up to the occasion?

I believe that, if we want something so badly, whether it is to challenge ourselves or just to force ourselves out of our comfort zone, to achieve our dreams, to hope that we can do something worthwhile for ourselves and our family (or even mankind), we can do it. And at the cognitive level, we just need to have our brains see it. It may even defy logic and reasoning.

Did the Wright brothers defy logic and reasoning that man can fly? Did Edison defy logic and reasoning about light bulbs? They probably have one thing in common and that is imagination. As Einstein said, imagination is more important than knowledge. And he would know best, as if he didn't day-dream in class about how light travelled, we would not have E=MC2.

So, while we can imagine, visualize, day-dream; whatever you call it, we still need an element of hope that our dreams and vision can come true. And it is important to have a vision, for when there is no vision; the people perish.

And to be able to have hope and hold it in our minds till it becomes a reality, we need to know what is hope (positive) made up. I believe that faith is the substance of hope.

For when we have faith, our hopes and dreams can stay alive, and if our hopes and dreams can stay alive, then we can do something to work towards it and make it a reality. But how do you teach someone to have faith if they have never seen "faith" or does not have any idea how to "have faith"?

Faith can mean, in a context, having faith in your doctor, having faith in marriage, having faith in a friend, having faith in a product, having faith in the plan, having faith in a situation. But how can one have faith in themselves? Or how do you have others have faith in you, even when you do not have a track record or experience or a degree to your name?

I believe that faith comes from trustworthiness. In order words, before you can convince another to have faith in you, you must have faith in yourselves. You must, prove to yourself, that you can trust yourself, that you have confidence in yourself, that you believe in your own self that you can accomplish the task.

And in order to do that, you must have personal mastery, or mastery over oneself. The greatest enemy is within. You are your own client. You are your fiercest critic. Therefore, the four most important areas to work on are; self-discipline, vision, rectitude, and leave a legacy.

We will explore these four areas in our next discussion.