Tu Shaheen Hai... Fly on the Wings of Belief

We were talking about poetry, Arshad, a fellow writer, and I.

Reading the great Urdu poets, listening to Jagjit Singh sing Mirza Ghalib... there's something about poetry ... it bypasses your brain and goes right for the soul ... evocative images... overwhelming emotions...

"How can one not be moved by emotion so vividly rendered?" I asked Arshad. "I wish I could write poetry."

"I write poetry sometimes. It just comes out from within me," Arshad said. "You should too." he then tells me.

"Oh no. I love poetry. But I could never write it. I'm too left-brained," I use the dismissive term I have always used to indicate that I don't think I am creative. (The right brain is considered the creative brain and left is the logical one).

I'm left-brained. With these words I have repeatedly smothered the artist within me, the painter, the inventor, the musician... and now the poet.

Haven't I had enough? People always say don't believe what others say about you ... believe in yourself.

Arshad had his novel rejected by four different publishers. It still sits in his folder...unbound and coverless... a mere manuscript ... but it's protected by something far greater than a book cover... belief. Arshad believes his writing has value ... and he will not give up on it because he believes in it, in himself...

But what happens if you yourself don't believe? Without giving my so-called right-brain even half a chance I relegated it to uselessness. No the problem is not that I couldn't draw/paint/write... the real problem is that I couldn't believe...

Because I didn't think I could immediately become a wildly successful poet I gave up before I had ever started ... but this is quite the cowardly approach.

Arre, I can't write poetry. So I never have to try. I never have to be rejected. And I never have to fail. But you know what I will NEVER succeed either. If you are not failing then you are not trying... I would go so far as to say you are not even living...simply existing.

Nobody starts at the top... that's just where you aim to go. You can't run off the roof and expect to fly... but you can start with a first tentative step.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King Jr.    

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So consciously sift through your options every time you are saying or thinking something about yourself and choose the belief you want.

Choose, I am creative, not I don't think I can be creative.

Choose, I can easily make money, not making money is really hard to do.

Choose, I will get a taxi, not there's no way I will get a taxi at this hour!

You see, It's simple. In most cases you really are just changing one or two words. Because "whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right," said Henry Ford. So always choose to think you can.

Choosing to believe means you adopt an attitude of positivity and confidence. Not just lip-service. You consciously assess your options and then choose the right belief. Every single motivational speaker, every secret to success ever revealed, tells us that what you expect to happen will happen. Your thoughts are a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is common knowledge now, no longer a secret, not for me, not for anyone. And yet, without giving a second thought, I kept insisting to myself and the universe that ‘too bad, I'm left-brained'.

Because I wasn't being careful and aware, I was limiting myself. No one else was bringing me down or labeling me, I was becoming my own worst enemy.

Not anymore, though, this time I choose to believe that I AM creative, I am a poet, I can move people with my words and evoke powerful emotions connecting to people around the world.

If you're wondering how to make yourself believe when you simply don't ... then there's a great little trick that works. Just pretend. Act like you believe it. Don't worry about the little voice in the back of your brain saying 'I know you're pretending'. Just ignore him because he eventually fades away, and the belief becomes real.

Albert Einstein was known to say that "imagination is the greatest creative force in the universe."

So use that force and bring your belief to life. If you want to be wealthy, start picturing yourself as wealthy. Imagine your bank statements, with the numbers. Imagine your home and life, whatever you want. But let that picture guide your life, and carry you to that success. The bigger the success in your head, the bigger your success in life.

Your belief will guide you through obstacles, through worries, through dangers ...to reach success. If you don't believe, then the smallest obstacle will topple you off your path. It's a much easier option, never having to fail, but you will never achieve anything either.

So let your picture of your success be the beacon that guides your steps as you move towards it. You are powerful, you are bestowed with great strength, resilience, and potential. Now picture yourself using these.

The world's greatest boxer, Muhammad Ali, used a visualization technique he called future history. He would picture himself in the ring at the end of a fight with the referee holding his arm aloft proclaiming him champion. He would feel himself in that moment believing it was real, crowds cheering, shouting his name. When he walked into that ring he was completely mentally and physically prepared to be there. In his mind, he had already won, losing was not even an option, so every fiber in his being did everything possible to make that outcome a reality.

If you believe the right thing, you will put every ounce of power in your being to make that belief come true. When I believed I was not creative, there was no point in my even trying. My mind was shut to everything, to inspiration, even.

Now that I've chosen to believe the opposite, I can put heaven and earth together to prove myself right.

I now believe I am a poet. Because I believe this, I write poetry. I feel inspired by the poets I read. It becomes a part of me. And the words of the great poet Allama Iqbal remind me where I belong:

Tu shaheen hai basera kar pahadon ki chattanon par
You're an eagle, make your nest on the peaks of mountains.
Do you believe you can fly? Tell me where your belief takes you? And maybe someday ... you will read my own poetry in these letters...