The Roots & The Fruits of Confidence
Why do so many people fall apart when once we move past the physical realm of confidence where big biceps and beer goggles just don’t cut it? And why do they turn to mind-altering substance? What’s wrong with their minds?
When somebody lacks confidence in today’s modern society we are conditioned to believe that things like more money, a better car, a better job, a longer beard, taller shoes, more tattoos or more trophies will somehow make us more confident. Some even misinterpret confidence as being an asshole or dominating others, which is really just overcompensation for lack of real confidence.
The problem with these solutions is that they only treat the effect or symptom of a problem, which has little or nothing to do with treating the root cause or underlying deficiency. As a result, similar to hacking at the branches of a troublesome weed without excavating the entire root, the problem eventually returns.
One of the best analogies for creating new results is a tree that bears fruit. As you can see from the diagram above there is a 4-step process, which creates the fruits of confidence as follows:
- You take action and focus on something, which feeds and influences your roots or beliefs
- The roots are also fed and influenced by the soil, which is your friends, family, co-workers and the media we watch and listen to.
- The roots are your beliefs created from step 1&2
- The fruits or lack thereof, are the result of your beliefs and action taken based on those beliefs
For instance, using health as an analogy, let’s say you get sick one day and your health just isn’t up to par. But poor health isn’t the problem; it’s the result of some cause, rather than one day just randomly getting sick.
A more likely scenario is that you got sick because a week ago you stressed your body way out of balance with intoxication or lack of sleep or both and your immune system was weakened to the point where it couldn’t fight off a very common virus or bacteria. Remember the Beachamp’s “Cellular Theory” vs. Pasteur’s “Germ Theory”? Illness is created when the host (you) are toxic or out of balance.
So in using our tree analogy, poor nutrients in the soil may represent poor nutrition or intoxication from drugs and alcohol or stress from a breakup or lack of money, which all lead to a breakdown in your immune system (the roots). This then translates into fewer nutrients to the trunk and branches and as a result, the fruits either don’t grow at all or they are rotten (you get sick).
Let’s use another analogy like money. Lack of money isn’t a problem; it’s a result, which could be related to not working, working on the wrong things or spending too much. But if we look at our roots to fruits analogy, the roots are your beliefs, which then created lack of work, working on the wrong thing or too much spending (the fruits or lack thereof).
Of course this “result” thing doesn’t just apply to health and money, but to all of our results including confidence. Lack of confidence isn’t a problem it’s a result. And from our roots to fruits analogy, confidence comes from taking specific actions.
If you aren’t as successful as you’d like to be with making money or finding the relationship you so desire or creating a robust healthy body, chances are you may lack money, love or good health, but lack of these things isn’t the problem, they’re the result. The result comes from the roots, which are your beliefs, which come from the water or what you’ve focused on in the past and been conditioned to believe in the present.
“Your beliefs are determined by what you’ve focused on in the past and been conditioned to believe in the present”
For a full course on reconditioning your beliefs check out the bestseller Triad of Unbreakable Confidence.