I woke up this morning with George Michael from WAM! singing on the
radio and telling me that “You gotta have Faith” Our religious leaders and
coaches tell us that we have to have faith. I tell my clients all the time to
have faith.  Often the word is used in religious terms and when someone is struggling with a problem they have no solution for.  But, what is “Faith”? What does it really mean to have it? 

Merriam/Webster defines Faith as:
 
1: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1): fidelity to one's promises  
    (2): sincerity of intentions
 
2 a (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines
   of a religion  b (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof
   (2) : complete trust 

3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially: a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>  —  on faith:  without question <took everything he said on faith>
 
It is #2 b(1) “Firm belief in something for which there is no proof”  that I am talking about when I encourage my clients to have faith. There are many things in life that we cannot see. Some of them we cannot see because we don’t know what we are looking at. Success, Happiness and Prosperity for instance. If you have not really experienced much of any of these in your life you wouldn’t know how they felt, what they looked like or even where to look for them in yourself.  Faith is radical trust. Trust in yourself, that you can accomplish your goals in life even if you
don’t know where to start in the moment. So, have faith in yourself and what you can accomplish. If you don’t know where to start or you get stuck along the way, ask questions, get a mentor, listen for the answers and trust that you will get the right ones and you will. 

Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Faith is taking the first step, even if you can’t see the whole staircase.”

I was recently talking with my friend,  Jo Barns, another excellent Mentor  and we got to talking about all the places we have lived and how lucky we were to have experienced some really beautiful places. And she was expressing how lucky she is to live on her island that is so beautiful. Her daughter gets to go to school with kids from 27 different countries and that their evenings relax time is a walk on the beach or a swim in the pool just like mine was when I lived in Hawaii all those years. 
 
“What luck that I landed here!” She stated.  But is it pure luck? Is it just lucky
that she lives there or do we make our own luck?
We all know the answer to that really,  don't we. As a follow up from last
week’s message about our needs vs. wants and how we create them, you know deep down we create our own luck through the choices we make.

I'm not saying that stuff isn't going to get in our way. Oh boy, will it! Things
will happen that will sway us off our path, that will slow us down, that may
even stop us in our tracks altogether. Life will always be throwing some kind of
challenge at us.

But it really is the way we choose to react or deal with these challenges that
determines the outcome and how we move forward.
An extreme example of this is a guy who I think is an incredible inspiration in
life - Nick Vujicic. If you haven't heard of him or seen him speak, check out
one of his videos here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snDQe3tWwRQ
He had a choice in life. He could have chosen to be a victim. Feel bad for the way
he is, taken up drugs or alcohol to ease his pain and spend his life just
feeling sorry for himself. My goodness, if anyone had a good excuse to be like
that he did!

But instead he chose to take his situation and create magic with it. Reach out to
other people, help people, lift and inspire people and make a difference the
world over. Life sure threw a challenge his way, but how he dealt with it determined the amazing life he (and probably millions of others) now lives!

As I said that's an extreme example. Please don't mistake me for being flippant
about your life. I understand that each and every one of us face real problems
and challenges that can turn our lives upside down.

I think I just wanted to convey the message that you do have a choice as to how
you deal with, react to or face a problem, no matter how big or
small. Just as I had a choice back in 2003 to sell everything I owned and jump on a plane with my fingers tightly crossed behind my back, you have a choice as to how you feel, the actions you take and the future you determine.

You have a choice on a daily basis to feel happy or sad. You have a choice to create ridiculous expectations of yourself or give yourself a break and make it easy to succeed and feel good. Life is hard enough already, don't make it harder for yourself. Make good choices!

I hope you have a great week!