*This is a guest post article written by High Performance Coach Zack Blakeney
It can be difficult for a high performer to live in the balance of confidence and humility, but therein lies the secret to their long-term success.
Without awareness of this essential need for balance, confidence can easily turn into arrogance, and humility can easily turn into inadequacy.
Interestingly, arrogance and inadequacy will mask themselves in your mind with the belief that they are polar opposite states of being, when in actuality they are intimately connected.
Inadequacy causes arrogance, and arrogance causes inadequacy.
In our modern day world, with the transfer of information happening in mere nanoseconds, our beliefs can be influenced to quickly change by our own perceptions of other people’s ‘instant’ success, programming us to believe instant gratification is valid and that we are for some reason, entitled to our desired success by merely doing the work; virtuous or not, aligned or not, productive or not.
This is the state of flux that the majority of us sit in at one time or another when we feel stuck in the results of our life, and stay in this state until we have the awareness to adopt some self-serving and unshakeable rules, that can become beliefs that begin to transform our perceptions to align more with the intentions of our conscious minds.
But there is information that has been around for centuries that didn’t come from witnessing the success of others, but rather came from an uninfluenced source found within.
In a time of less outside influence creating obnoxious noise that drowns out your inner knowing, it’s time to revisit these rules, and give them the power of belief to guide you into your peak performance.
1. A Disciplined Mind Brings Happiness
Self-discipline is the predicator to self-respect, self-respect is the initiator for courage, and courageous actions will undoubtedly bring your happiness. Think about it. When you say you are going to do something you intend to do, and you do it, how do you feel? Good right? But how about the opposite? When you say you are going to do something you intend to do, and you don’t, how do you feel? Bad right? This is a very simple look at your behavior, and also is the key to the acceleration of your happiness and success.
Right now, you are, and have been, telling yourself you need to start taking action on something you haven’t, and you need to let go of something that you haven't. Both things will level you up your personal and professional growth. The longer you sit knowing this without doing, the more frustration, resentment, anxiety, and apathy occurs.
2. You Have The Right to Your Work. You Have No Right to The Results of Your Work.
Entitlement will prevent you from seeing the truth. You deserve absolutely nothing except for a chance to live, but you can earn absolutely anything you align your being with. Notice I didn’t say ‘anything you want’ as most do, this phrasing only enhances the feeling of entitlement and will send you on a path of unrealistic expectations to the amount of time, work, and energy it will take to reach your definition of success.
You must find purpose. The deep and meaningful calling within you to make the impact your heart intends, not the fickle desires of your ever changing mind. Alignment of your heart, your head, and your habits to your intended impact will fastrack your chance of success, and even then, there is no guarantee you will actually achieve it.
Fall in love with your work, live in the present moment, and let belief drive you to the possibility of something greater than you.
3. You are made by your beliefs. As you believe, so you are.
Speaking of beliefs, they are the core of who you are, and create the perceptions of the world you live in. I’ve guided and spoken with many people who say they believe one thing, but are living an entirely different way.
Show me what you do in a day, and I will show you what you believe.
I come back to this word again, alignment. In this way, it is the alignment of your subconscious and conscious beliefs that needs to occur for you to live within the beliefs you know to be consciously true.
Your subconscious mind is one million times more powerful than your conscious mind, but your conscious mind can control all of your life experience.
Subconscious reprogramming takes time and energy, but if you choose to take on the challenge, it will unlock your ability to manifest what you consciously believe.
4. There Are No Accidents
This rule can be foundational in eliminating feelings of shame, guilt and regret in your life. Holding these emotions in your being will limit you from reaching your peak performance and true potential.
You can only be where you are in your life right now. There are no other possibilities. Your mind will argue this truth with the ‘I should’ve, would’ve, could’ve’ narrative, but all of that did not happen. What happened, happened, and it has led you to this moment, reading this article.
When you adopt this rule as belief, personal responsibility and accountability for your actions also occurs. Simultaneously eliminating the victim mindset that tricks you to believe that you have no control, and diverts the blame to some outside that only has relation to your current experience because you have allowed it to.
Accept that there are no accidents to unlock your power to create.
5. You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
When you begin to accept that you know very little, it opens your mind to the desire to know more. Learning occurs everyday, even when you don’t consciously seek new knowledge and understanding. Instead of learning something new, you are learning to compound your current belief system over and over as truth into your being, without ever seeking if it could actually be resourceful to your growth and performance.
This is a very dangerous position to take as arrogance is more likely to become the driver for your actions.
Arrogance is defined as an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions.
And as stated previously, arrogance is the mask for and is rooted in inadequacy, which in turn closes you off from obtaining new knowledge and understanding to actually make you feel as if you are whole, complete, and enough.
Conclusion
Whether you choose to adopt these rules as truth, doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that they serve you to stand in the balance of confidence and humility that is essential for your success.
Too often in this world we argue over truth as this decisive word that either inspires us to change or divides us even further.
But there is a big difference between the truth, and your truth. Your truth is all that matters, and when you align your truths with beliefs that serve your happiness and performance, your desired success has a greater opportunity to show up as your heart intended.
Of course you are already successful, you just haven’t recognized it yet.