We have been told our entire lives, to believe.
Believe what others tell us.
Believe in ourselves.
Believe our parents, our teachers, our professors, our friends, our colleagues, our bosses, and now, the ever-growing realm of internet influencers.
We are taught to believe that someone, out there, has the answer for us.
We are taught to believe that successful people know some secret that we do not, and someone out there can teach it to us.
And so we continue searching for answers,
on and on,
forever.
Hoping that one day we will find that golden nugget of information that will finally open the gates to all that we have ever wanted.
But it doesn’t work, does it?
That’s why we continue to search, is it not?
At some point, we must face a truth:
Belief is a LIE.
Belief DOES NOT WORK.
Belief does not make a difference to your life whatsoever.
It doesn’t make you perform better,
it doesn’t make you happier,
it doesn’t make you confident,
it doesn’t fix anything.
Belief does not achieve anything PERMANENTLY.
It is your typical quick fix to feel a little bit better about yourself.
So, what is permanent?
KNOWING.
Let me ask you something,
do you BELIEVE you can brush your teeth?
or do you KNOW you can brush your teeth?
Of course you KNOW how to brush your teeth!
Just like you know how to drive.
Just like you know how to read, and write, and talk, and listen, and walk.
You haven’t thought about doing any of these things in years.
And, at a certain point, you stopped practicing these things,
and at that same moment, you stopped believing you can do them.
You reached a point where you simply KNEW.
Yet when it comes to your sport,
when it comes to the things you have practiced FAR MORE than you have practiced brushing your teeth,
you train, and practice, and train, and practice,
and STILL DOUBT YOURSELF.
Why?
Because you train to believe.
You train to doubt LESS.
You do not train to KNOW.
If I asked you why you didn’t practice brushing your teeth but continued to practice something you have done a lot more of, the conversation may look like this;
You; ‘Why would I train to brush my teeth when I know how to do it?’
To which I would reply; ‘Why do you not KNOW how to execute a skill you have practiced 100 or 1000 times more than brushing your teeth?’
The answer, is because you have been conditioned into the world of constant refinement, and the 10,000 hour rule, and competing with everyone else about how much you practice and how hard you work.
If there were a world championship for teeth brushing, immediately there would be a million gurus sharing the perfect brushing technique.
And everyone would immediately be analysing and questioning and refining their technique, and hiring coaches to show them ‘the proper way’.
We constantly pursue refinement, simply because we’ve bought into the idea of belief.
What if you trained, and practiced,
not to increase belief,
but to simply reaffirm your knowing?
Imagine consciously practicing walking every day.
Imagine consciously practicing reading every day.
Imagine consciously practicing brushing your teeth every day.
It would be a nightmare!
There would be a constant stream of thinking, and analysing, and STRESS.
Yet when it comes to our skills, we still practice them, EVERY DAY.
We still analyse, and question, and doubt them, EVERY DAY.
But you see, knowing is innate.
It is certain.
There is no need for validation, or affirmation.
There is no need for BELIEF.
There is no need for THOUGHT.
You don’t ‘hope’ you do it right.
You don’t ‘believe’ you can do it.
You just know.
And that’s what separates the best from the rest.
The Kobe’s, The MJ’s, the Tiger’s, the Serena’s.
They don’t believe.
They don’t hope.
They Know.
Whatever it is you do,
you either know it, or you don’t know it.
But here’s the thing:
EITHER IS FINE.
You just have to Know.
The Way of Knowing, is the way of Experimentation.
Experiment with the instructions and the advice you receive.
Experiment with all the strategies you have learnt.
Experiment with the technique adjustments you’ve been told to make.
Test them.
See if they WORK.
So then you KNOW, whether it works for you, or not.
Because either you KNOW, or you DON’T KNOW.
In either case, you give yourself the permission to simply execute.
If you KNOW what to do, you simply do it.
If you admit, honestly, that you don’t know,
you’ve at least given yourself the permission,
to try.
You don’t have to think about it,
you don’t have to convince yourself of anything.
What you have done, is FREED yourself to simply try.
To Experiment.
To see, for yourself,
whether it works to achieve your goal,
or not.
Whether it works sometimes,
all the time,
or none of the time.
There is never a thought DURING the action.
It’s a process of execution, and assessment.
When you remove belief, you remove the greatest barrier to Peak Performance,
your MIND.
Whether you KNOW, or DON’T KNOW, you GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY!
You are FREE of your mind.
Free to experiment,
Free to execute,
Free to KNOW.
Forget about hoping.
Forget about believing.
KNOW.
Instead of training and practicing to believe in yourself,
what if you trained and practiced to KNOW?
To understand the skill so intimately and deeply that you simply KNEW how to execute it.
Most people train without a purpose at all,
some people train to believe they can execute their skills,
but the RARE individuals train to KNOW.
What if on game day,
you didn’t hope you would execute your skills,
you didn’t believe you would execute your skills,
you simply KNEW?
Your entire mindset, and persona,
would be different.
You would be calm.
You would be free of nerves.
You would be free of your mind.
And you would be FREE, TO PERFORM.
Know, or Don’t Know.
But do not Believe.