Why we need to believe in others
A mindset changing moment for me
I recently listened to a short clip of Viktor Frankl talking about why we should believe in others. Here’s a short clip below:
If you don’t know who Viktor Frankl is, he’s most known for his book, Man’s Search For Meaning. A book detailing about the atrocities of the Holocaust and how hope saved him. There are many lessons to learn and I hope to introduce you to this book if you haven’t read it already. It was eye opening for me and I learn something new every time I read it.
Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X
From the clip, there was a line that spoke volumes to me.
If we take man as he is, we make him worst. But if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be.
You’ve probably heard of that famous Einstein’s line:
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
If there’s nobody to believe in you, nobody to believe that you’re capable of grand ordeals and dreams, would you be able to do it? Or would you believe that you’re suppose to be stuck at your inevitable fate? It’s possible but it’ll be extremely difficult.
Imagine if everyone around you didn’t believe that you can achieve any goals you have set in front of you. Would you still be the same person? That’s why as silly as it sounds, telling your kid they can do anything and achieve anything actually promotes them to aim for it. Even if they didn’t reach it, the skills, relationships, and the experience of hardship through labor has been learned. This is something that is transitive through all of the problems your kid will go through and will help them be successful.
Furthermore, this encouragement sets a kid up for something transformative in their life; failure breeds success. When kids do more, naturally they’ll fail more. But it’s through repetition and iterations that they’ll find success. Each failure leads to another path of learning. The stakes are low when you’re a child so do encourage your child to continue to fail and learn.
*I wrote an article about why we should seek to fail if you’re interested: Why we should seek to fail *
Now imagine if that’s our default behavior, to genuinely believe in someone. Would it cost a dime to tell someone you believe in them? I doubt it. But you would be making a world’s difference, especially if that someone has never had anyone believe in them. You never know what someone could be capable of so why not be that person to push them towards BEING that person?
I believe that one person has the ability to change a person’s mindset regardless of how that person enters that person’s life. All it takes is a moment. Will you provide it?
If you’ve enjoyed my articles, please subscribe and share! Please connect with me on :
Instagram: stayingkonnected
Twitter: Stayingkonnect
Youtube: Staying Konnected
Podcast: Staying Konnected