One of my favorite books as a child was “The Road to the Bazaar.” I doubt any of you (my readers) have ever heard of it.
If I remember correctly it was gift given to me around the age of 6.
My mother used to read the stories to me before I went to bed at night and I can still picture some of the images contained within that book.
It revolves around the daily life on an Indian boy who loves to spend his days at the bazaar in his village.
One chapter was dedicated to his experience playing cricket.
Now, before anyone asks me anything, I would like to state that while I am British, I know next to nothing about cricket. It’s very much a foreign game to me.
But that didn’t detract from the chapter whatsoever as it was dealt with the concept of belief.
In it, he plays cricket with his friends only to be told he isn’t any good.
Disheartened, he sits alone when a man approaches him to find out what’s wrong.
The boy retells the man what had happened and it turns out that the stranger was once a star cricket player and he attributed his success to his magic cricket bat.
The man tells him that he’d be happy to let the boy borrow it as he no longer had any use for it.
The next day the boy takes the bat with him and, as the man said, it was magic.
He hit better than he ever had and left feeling on top of the world.
Unfortunately, the next day the bat ends up broken (I forget how exactly) and the boy is devastated.
The man happens to see the boy just after it happens with the broken bat in his hands.
Naturally, as you might have already guessed, the man proceeds to tell the boy that the bat wasn’t special at all and the boy had the talent inside him all along.
All he had to do was believe in himself.
And you know the rest.
We have all read stories like the one above. The so-called “magic” ingredient turning out to be nothing more than our belief in ourselves.
What’s amazing is how true it is in life just like all the stories.
Belief in yourself is paramount to success in any field.
We must believe that we can build our business just as we must believe that the man/woman of our dreams will say yes to having dinner with us.
We must believe that we can pass the test, otherwise we won’t bother studying.
We must believe that no matter how dark things look at present, that we will survive.
Belief that we can do something leads to action.
Actions create results.
Results show us whether we need to rethink our actions.
Keep what works, chuck out what doesn’t.
And in time, you will find yourself a success in whatever task you take upon yourself to achieve.
But it all starts with belief that we can do it.
So the next time you’re feeling down, just remember that “magic” cricket bat.
We all have it within us.
We just need to find it.
Adrian Shepherd