Faith: The Knockout Secret to Success

If I told you the secret to success in every area of your life is faith, what would you say? My friends smile politely and find an excuse to head for the door. Why?

Because when we hear the word “faith”, we usually think about religion… which is a big mistake! Forget about religion for a minute. The fact is you and I both practice all kinds of faith every day, all day.

You have faith the sun will come up tomorrow. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t bother shopping for food or those fancy new shoes. You have faith in electricity, breathing, your senses, working out, friendship, toothpaste… put simply, if there’s something you take for granted, you’re expressing faith it exists and will continue to exist.

So, embrace your faith. Because life without faith is no life at all. In the same way that religious faith may inject passion and purpose into your life, faith in yourself injects passion and purpose into every breath you take.

In short, faith in yourself is the knockout secret to success.

Faith in your goals. Faith in your principles, talents, and skills. Faith in your fight.

But be warned–faith is fragile. You make mistakes. You suffer setbacks. You get criticized. It’s easy to lose your faith.

When you lose your faith, you hold back. You stop trying. You search for passion instead of create it.

Without faith in yourself,
you are not yourself.

Martial arts is my favorite laboratory to examine the power of faith. When people are being punched or choked, you see exactly what they believe in, and what they don’t. Maybe someone can punch and kick a heavy bag like a world champion, but stand them in front of a real world champion, and suddenly they can’t move! Even if you’re yelling, “MOVE! PUNCH! RUN!”

I’m no different. When I fight, there are moves I believe in and other moves I won’t even try. Moves I practice all the time. But under pressure, I don’t trust them. Even when I want to use them, my body won’t let me! Like when you see a horse galloping towards a hurdle then suddenly stops short.

Even if your heart wants to do something, if your brain and body don’t believe you can do it, you will be held back. Or headed for a fall. That’s what practice and hard work is all about—connecting what you want to do and what you can do. Connecting desire and capability.

But here’s the funny thing about faith. It might take years of practice and experience to build faith in some skills, but only a moment for others. In fighting, sometimes you’ll see a white belt smack the daylights out of a black belt. How? The white belt simply believes he can hit the black belt, so he jumps forward throwing punches. Faith, not skill, is his secret to success.

The black belt, on the other hand, may have lost faith in his punch. His doubt grows into fear…the fear of getting hit, the fear of losing, the fear of looking stupid. Without faith, the black belt stops throwing punches and starts making excuses. The lesson–

Between people of unequal skills and experience, or even equal skills and experience, faith can be the deciding factor between success and failure.

So, there are two kinds of faith: faith earned through practice and blind faith. If you ask me to choose between having blind faith and no experience or having doubt and lots of experience, I’ll go with blind faith every time. Why? Because faith leads to action, and action leads to success. Doubt leads to fear, and fear leads to failure.

I’d rather throw bad punches than no punches!

Of course, most white belts don’t beat black belts. Most white belts are aware of their lack of skill and hesitate to take action. And that ruins everything!

Beginners should be fearless. They should take giant leaps towards their goals instead of baby steps. Yes, they should take leaps of faith.

But fearless beginners are rare. Most students hold back. They focus on the possible dangers and refuse to commit 100%. They think if they just make half-hearted efforts and wait it out, someday they’ll magically be transformed into a master. But it doesn’t work like that!

Even with full-hearted effort, the time between being a beginner and a master can be years, decades, or a lifetime. If you wait around until you’re a master of something before taking action with 100% commitment, you’ll never accomplish anything. You’ll doom yourself to a lifetime of small victories instead of roaring successes.

To get the most out of life, you must have faith in your fight at every stage of your journey.

Now, I’m not saying faith is the only secret to success in life. If you ever hear me say that, please–punch me in the face! You know who else should get punched in the face? Sports commentators who talk about how the victors of a big football or basketball game won because they “really believed in themselves.”

So, what– all the teams who lose big games don’t believe in themselves? Ridiculous!

Or how about a punch in the face for all the people who celebrate survivors of a disease or disaster by saying things like, “They never gave up. They always believed they would make it.”

So, what—all the people who die from disease or in a disaster gave up on life? They just didn’t believe enough? Ridiculous and insulting!

Don’t get crazy about the power of belief!

There’s nothing mystical or magical about faith. Beliefs on their own do not manifest anything. Like everything else on the road to success, beliefs take work. Faith needs to be tested.

To be fair, all faith begins as blind faith. When we’re born, we have no experience or knowledge. Instead of having faith in ourselves, we are forced to have faith in our parents and teachers to help us navigate a safe and successful path through the world.

But as we get older, we start discovering things for ourselves. We develop our own perspective and build our own beliefs. The more we experience, the more we strengthen those beliefs. Mohandas Gandhi made the same point when he said–

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

Exactly. That’s the whole point of learning, asking questions, and experimenting–to build trust in what we know about the world and ourselves. Whether it’s in relationships, finances, dieting, or fighting, no faith should stay blind for long.

How long should you keep investing money into a business that fails to make a dime? How much energy should you invest in a friend or employee who constantly disappoints you? How long should you hold on to a dream when you have never moved one step closer to achieving it?

We will all grow older. We should also grow wiser. There is no virtue in clinging to a belief that is not strengthened by experience. True faith is built on experience. Blind faith is built on delusion.

Of course, no one wants to admit they believe in something blindly. We prefer to back up our beliefs with evidence. But here’s the bad news about faith—for some beliefs, there is no evidence to discover. I may believe I will live to be 100, but that doesn’t mean I will.

Thankfully, the good news about faith is that for most beliefs, there is unlimited evidence to discover. How do you find it? By putting your belief to the test. Blind faith is untested belief. True faith is tested.

Back in my Tae Kwon Do days, a teacher told me he once saw one of the masters kick a basketball hoop. I knew a basketball hoop was 10 feet off the ground, so, I immediately thought he was a big, fat liar. I held that belief for years. Not blindly, though. I put it to the test. Anytime I found myself near a basketball hoop, I tried kicking it. And I never came close. All I did was tear a muscle one time, and the crotch of my pants another time. Case closed.

Flash forward a few years. I’m in a different Tae Kwon Do school. A different master is giving a demonstration. As part of his demo, he blasted off the ground like a rocket and kicked the ceiling. He actually cracked the ceiling tile, which was at least nine feet high!

In that instant, my beliefs changed. Maybe it was possible to kick a hoop. It just wasn’t possible for me.

Ouch. The truth hurt. No matter how much I believed the master couldn’t do something, he could. No matter how much I believed I could do something, I couldn’t. And that’s the greatest reward for putting your faith to the test–

Truth. Truth about the world and truth about yourself.

If you accept what your experience tells you, you won’t waste time, energy, and enthusiasm on goals that are beyond your capabilities, and you’ll have more time, energy, and enthusiasm for goals that are absolutely possible.

That may take a minute to accept. From childhood, we are bombarded with positive-thinking mantras. “You can be anything you want to be. You can do anything if you just set you mind to it.”

Ha! Don’t you believe it! Positive thinking only makes a difference when you’re headed in the right direction to begin with. Context matters!

If you’re smart, every positive belief you have about what you can do should be coupled with a negative belief about what you can’t do. This does not make you a negative person! This is simply accepting your limitations. I believe I can run faster than a four-year-old. I do not believe I can run faster than a four-year-old cheetah. And I’m okay with that.

So, put your beliefs to the test. And the sooner, the better. Think of it this way–

Belief is a starting point. I believe I can finish college. I believe I can start a business. I believe I can friggin’ fly. Believe whatever you like! That’s the optimistic side of life. The hopeful side. But–

Faith only becomes meaningful when it prompts you to take action.

Take action and look at your progress honestly. Ask yourself if you really have what it takes to get what you want. If you’re not sure, take more action and find out! The bottom line–

The only way to trust yourself is to test yourself.

Once you get a clear picture of your capabilities, update your plans. If you still have faith you can do it, fight, fight, fight! If not, stop dreaming impossible dreams!

I know talk about accepting your limitations and giving up dreams may sound a lot like giving up… that’s because it is giving up! You’re giving up the delusion you can do anything you want.

Sorry to burst any happy bubbles floating in your head, but let me share some sad facts of life with you:

Sad Fact #1: Everyone can’t do everything. I’ll never kick a basketball hoop. I’ll never be a professional opera singer. I’ll never be fluent in higher mathematics. Ever!

That’s why I believe in information, not motivation. If I can offer you information to help you test your beliefs and point you in the direction of success, I’ll give you everything I’ve got. But I’ll never cheer on anyone to chase after their dreams until I know if their dreams are rooted in experience or delusion.

The fact is, even when you set goals within your capabilities, you’re still not guaranteed to succeed. Setting goals outside your capabilities is a waste of everyone’s time.

Sad Fact #2: Belief in yourself is worthless. I’m not saying all belief is worthless, only untested belief. Lots of people line up to audition for American Idol believing, “I can sing!” Lots of people go to an art museum believing, “Pff. I can paint that!” Lots of people watch a fight on TV believing, “I can beat that guy!” People believe all kinds of wacky, wacky things. And on their own, all those beliefs mean nothing.

Sad fact #3: Belief others have in you is worthless. The people who line up for American Idol aren’t alone. They’ve got friends and family. People who never said, “Dude—you can’t sing.” Don’t get me wrong—your friends and family have their heart in the right place. They want you to succeed. Or maybe they just don’t have the guts to tell you the truth. Either way, when someone tells you, “You can do it!” or “I believe in you!” say thank you, but remember…on their own, those kind words mean nothing. It’s up to you to put them to the test.

Since you’re already acting on your faith all day, every day, it’s important to know exactly what you believe in and what you don’t. Here are some questions to help sort it all out:

• What do you want out of life? Do you believe you can get it?

• Do you have faith in your fight? Your skills and knowledge? Your A-game?

• Are you a “white belt” in life, throwing punches with blind faith…or are you a “black belt” in life, but find yourself sometimes doubting the power of your punch?

• Are you testing yourself? Are you learning and practicing every day, building your faith until you score a knockout?

• Are you failing because you don’t have enough faith in your abilities or are you failing because you have too much faith in your abilities? Are you jumping at basketball hoops, blinded by delusion when you’d be better off doing something else?

WAIT! Before moving on, remember that answering these questions is not enough…you need to put your answers to the test!

Ask yourself WHY you believe what you believe. What’s your evidence? What experience do you have to back up your faith? Nail down the truth and eliminate delusion.

WARNING! Testing your faith can be scary because it demands change. If your experience confirms you’re headed in the right direction, you will feel the pull of passion to take greater action. If your experience tells you you’re headed in the wrong direction, you will feel the need to change directions. Either way, you will feel the fear of change!

If you fear change, you will stop testing your faith. When that happens, you will allow delusion to shape your faith instead of experience. Fear will delude into believing you can’t do things you can do, and you can do things you can’t do.

Where faith is the secret to success, fear is the secret to failure. Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear kills faith.

You must be brave and test your faith at every opportunity. Dive in. Get out there. Go for it. The only way to kill fear is through experience.

Experience replaces the unknown with fact, chaos with order, and unpredictability with certainty.

Let’s sum this up…

A life rooted in faith is the secret to success in all things. To make faith work for you, let blind faith lead you to take fearless action. Let fearless action lead you to experience. Let experience inform your faith and make it stronger and wiser.

Be proud of your faith. Be proud because you test it. You work it. Be proud because your faith is growing–faith in your character, faith in your standards, faith in your goals, in your career, your practice, your habits, your friends, your judgment.

Trust yourself to know what you can and cannot do. Trust yourself to know who you are and who you’re trying to become.

Whatever you do, have faith in your fight. Hold on to it. Become an evangelist, a zealot, a warrior for your cause. Keep throwing punches.

You will soon see that faith is not just the secret to learning more about you and the world, it’s the secret to success. It’s also the secret to building a happy life.

This article is a summary of the Fight for a Happy Life podcast, “Faith in Your Fight.” Listen to the full episode here.