Faith, Hope & Certainty

I had initially thought that this particular distinction was overdone in many different personal development systems and I wasn’t going to write about it.  I have to be unique, right?  Well, it’s a fundamental principle that I had to employ myself today.

As you know, this is part of my second book. I have hope that my first book will be successful enough to warrant the writing of a second volume.  Hope rarely takes us into action.  Because, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, “If my first book doesn’t make it, why am I wasting my time writing all of this stuff?”

The transition of hope to faith is determined by evidence.  Evidence doesn’t have to be real, just conceived.  Hence, blind faith is creating or envisioning evidence that others do not see.  I do have some evidence.  After all, my first book was accepted by a publisher for print and distribution.  I guess that’s what helped me to write a couple of chapters for my second book.  But then I got stuck again.  Why was the release of my first book delayed?  Could it be that the publishers are scamming me?  (I can just imagine the faces on my publishers as they’re reading this now.)

The thing with faith is that when we have it one day, we can’t expect it to last for our lifetime.  There will be many “tests of faith.”

Well, I got more proof.  Five copies of my published book arrived at my door.  Yippee!  So I wrote a couple more chapters of Volume II.  Now it seems to be taking forever for the distributors to put my first book into circulation.  Maybe I’ll just wait - just in case.  So I stopped writing for a couple of months.

That’s when I knew it was time for this chapter.  Every successful person that we may know or will hear about always had the attitude that they will succeed.  They don’t wait around for things to happen, they make things happen.  Even if it is uncomfortable, risky, or uncertain.  How much proof do we need?  We constantly want more and that doesn’t make sense!  Let’s just visualize our desired outcome and go for it.

Now certainty creeps into the picture.  Certainty is active faith in all ways.  That is, believing our faith has already been done, and acting as if it is already done.  I send out some of these chapters to an e-mail list of friends (that’s how this whole concept got started for those of you who have asked).  Certainty causes me to put myself on the line and be certain that this book will succeed.  Will I seem cocky having such an attitude?  What if my book doesn’t make it - then what a lousy chapter this will be!

There are different strategies to combat this evil fear.  I use the Vulcan mentality.  What are the chances of making it if we don’t have certainty?  And, what are the chances of making it if we do have certainty?  I want the odds in my favor.

Certainty is always a choice.  Yes, it has risks.  But it has those risks because it also yields the most benefits.

Let's love the world together...

Love,
Danish Ahmed, blind visionary