Faith. Ask a dozen people about it, you’ll get a dozen different answers. I don’t worry much about faith in the hereafter, unless that hereafter has to do with what I’m doing here, after I’m done typing this blog (going to bed, that’s what). Not that faith in the hereafter is bad or good. It simply takes all my attention to be where my feet are and live the sort of life I believe I should be living. The Creative Moment is within you and without you. That’s as here and now as it gets.

My family and I have been through challenging times these past 24 months. No need to bore you with the details here other than to say oof, wish we hadn’t made the decision to get into an ARM at the same time most of my business was shipped out of the country. We went through the stages of anxiety, depression, grief, and anger, deciding at last to move clear across the country.

What’s happened with me as a result is that I decided to practice having faith in my ability to respond appropriately to whatever happens… and the faith that says in this moment, I’m doing okay… and the faith that, if weeds can sprout so abundantly even in the desert, I probably can, too.

Learning About Having Faith the Hard Way

Is there some other method?

What I’ve been learning about faith in business could fill a book, but I didn’t learn about it from reading one. Well, that’s not entirely true. There are some very good business books out there from which I learned a lot. But I suppose the most valuable lessons I’ve had to learn came about from standing back up every time I fell. Brothers and sisters, I have fallen. A lot. Repeatedly, in fact. I imagine I will fall again. Maybe even soon. The theme that keeps coming up is that in every fall, in every failure, lurks the nucleus of an opportunity to develop greater faith in myself and in what I do best.

Don’t ever abandon what you do best. I know, “Duh, Michael.” But bear with me for a moment, because I did precisely that. I failed to trust the inner voice that was always nudging me, tugging at my shirttails, whispering ,”Hey, pal, over here — if you’d practice a little faith in what you can really do you wouldn’t be worried about paying your mortgage right now.” Trusting myself is what faith is all about for me these days.

How Having Faith Works

There is nothing mystical about faith. Magical thinking isn’t required. In fact, faith works regardless of your spiritual beliefs (or lack of them). That’s what I like about faith. It’s scientific because the results are repeatable.

Here’s how having faith works in my life: I trust without question that I will be able to respond appropriately to whatever happens. I came to believe that I am above fear, and that I can create any lifestyle I choose. Then — and this was the key for me — I acted with complete certainty that this was so. As soon as I took that knew belief and made it my daily practice, accepting it into my system as fact, strange things started happening. They were strange to me, anyway. New consulting and coaching opportunities arose both from networks I’d been a part of for years and from places I could never have predicted. All by themselves.

It’s like a water faucet. When I’m in self-doubt, opportunities just seem to dry up. Tap’s off. When I’m operating in faith, taking action from a determined and purposeful position, opportunities fill me up. Tap’s on.

I’m telling you, I was flabbergasted. Still am. How can this possibly be? I don’t know. It’s far too easy for me to intellectualize this entire process and start that ridiculous self-doubt vibration shuddering down my spine. No thank you. What causes faith to work the way it does? Insert your own explanation here. The explanation for the power of faith in my life is irrelevant to me. All I need to know is that it works.