adminconverted to one of the newly formed Pentecostal churches. At first the implication of his conversion only meant reduced fishing time with Chris due to his new calling. Of the fewer days we fished with him during weekdays, he started catching more than Alan and me most of the times.
No major reason could be advanced for his new found sparkling form from a scientific point of view. We fished near the same spots in the same dam, using similar tackle but Chris was more successful than us most of the time. As Chris’s mentor, I comforted myself by thinking that success of any mentorship programme is best witnessed when the mentee develops to be better than the mentor.
One thing became clear that Chris newfound competencies were a bit difficult to imitate. I decided to observe him closely. Chris was now very prayerful. He had so much faith in God as well as the intermediation capacities of the prophet of his church. During hard and barren times, he would pray to his creator for divine intervention. Every time he caught a big fish, he would say, ’’I thank you the God of Prophet . . . ” Even during prayers, he would mention, “the God of his Prophet”.
This draws me into thinking that every human being needs a spiritual reserve to be successful for a longer period of time as well as to cool off some of the tensions that build in our systems which prevents us from going forward during difficult periods in our lives.
It became evident to me that Chris was riding on his Christian beliefs to be more successful in bass fishing. His beliefs gave him more conviction and hope that was lacking in the past. After his conversion Chris became a very positive person and hence success followed him.
One’s beliefs can be a source of
competitive advantage
A belief system or individual personal conviction is difficult to imitate. What is easier to copy is going to church or other religious affiliations. Some people go to these affiliations and hardly believe in what they are taught at these affiliations.
Riding on one’s belief to achieve excellence can be a source of competitive advantage. Both Alan and I conceded that we are not able to copy Chris belief system.
We will have to rely on our own beliefs or other sources of inspiration to overcome Chris’s dominance.
However, most people that I know are religious but in most cases mediocre in their performance at work. This therefore implies that religion if correctly used can improve one’s self-belief.
Categories of a belief system
A belief system can be broken down into believe in oneself (self-belief), belief in group values (company or club values), belief in spirit world (religion).
Do you believe in yourself?
One of the hardest things an individual faces in one’s life is to believe in oneself. It is easier for us to believe in other people than ourselves. We all believe that we have more limitations than core competencies. We tend to magnify the challenges that we face such that it becomes logical not to achieve anything.
Self-beliefs give you the confidence and motivation that allows you to prevail regardless of the odds staked against you.
Group beliefs
Group beliefs can be categorised as national beliefs, tribal beliefs, company beliefs and family beliefs.
These beliefs are handed down from generation to culminating in the unspoken way we do things at this place. The beliefs that enable people to overcome challenges tend to withstand the test of time. Some nations share certain value systems more than others so are companies. It appears nations with common success beliefs tend to be more successful than those with diverse beliefs about success. Chinese and other Asian nationals seem to have widely commonly shared beliefs about success.
According to Ch’ng (1993), the Chinese work hard not only because they have been brought up to value hard work, associated material rewards and social esteem, but also because they believe financial success brings honour to their ancestors. It is not by accident that China is now the second biggest economy in the world. The Chinese are spurred on by the desire to please their ancestors.
Listening to the personal interviews of Didier Drogba and Peter Cech after winning the European Champions League final last Saturday, one underlying uniting factor among Chelsea players was the whole team believed they were going to win the cup. This was even when they were two goals behind their opponents throughout the whole campaign. In my own opinion the Chelsea outfit that won the Champions League was not as good (given that most of the players are at the twilight of their careers now) as the previous Chelsea teams (since 2002) which failed to win any major European cup. The difference between the 2012 Chelsea team and the previous teams lies in the team’s beliefs.
The Chelsea team never ceased to believe in winning even if they were behind their opponents throughout the campaign.
The challenge most of us face is how to react when we suddenly discover that our competitors, our friends, relatives, our enemies are doing better than we are. They might be having better cars, better houses and sending their children to better schools. Further misery can be added if the new victors were not as good as us in sports or academics during our school days.
At work other members of staff get discouraged if the non-performing staff member gets promoted to a more influential position. This can cause dissention in other staff members. Some of them tend to sulk and lose hope.
The most difficult thing is to wait for your day of reckoning. The future appears too distant for most mortals. Most people find it incomprehensible to understand that opportunities knock at people’s doors during different times in their lives. Other people utilise opportunities at 20 years and others at 70 years. The key is an individual has to keep on believing that his/her dream will come to pass. Self-belief can easily be lost if one is not patient.
Those who continually desire to achieve something in their lives will end up achieving it. There is nothing that can stop the heart desires.
Steps of converting youR
self-belief into Action
Dream
Self-belief is only useful to the extent of helping you to fulfil your dream. Having self-belief while living a goalless existence is merely vanity. Dreams give you a purpose in life.
Believe in the dream
A person dreams more than a million times during his/her life. If one is to believe in all the dreams one experiences, then one will be confused. A successful person will only focus on the few dreams that if achieved will transform his or her life. Success is guaranteed if you believe that you can do it. Success is normally first conceived in the mind. If your mind says yes, chances are that you will achieve your dream.
Act on your self-belief
Self-belief, which is not accompanied by action, is useless. Self-belief must be accompanied by action. Results come to those who believe in their dreams and passionately set out to fulfil their dreams
Negative aspects of religion
Karl Max argues that “religion is the opium of the people”. If not carefully used and managed, people can easily justify stupid and thoughtless behaviour using religion. In our culture and other religions, if someone becomes a thief, or prostitute, it is just convenient to say “imhepo dzekumusha’’ (evil spirits) yet the same person grew up showing signs of extreme laziness.
Beliefs can help you or undo you. Some beliefs spur you to perform and others kill your desire to perform. Chris’ beliefs increased his desire to catch bass better than Alan and myself.
Role of management
According to Johnson & Scholes (1997): “It is important to understand the cultural aspects of the organisation in order to be able to use it as a source of competitive advantage.” They define the organisational culture as “the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by organisational members’’.
Management has a duty to investigate and find out whether some of the beliefs at their company need to be modified or shaped so that they align with the organisational goals. However, organisational beliefs take a long time to understand as well as to alter.
The other role is to start building up company rituals that aid organisational performance and for the employees to believe in these. Teams normally gel when their beliefs are taken into consideration in any decision- making process.
Is religion the only source of self-belief?
Religion is not only the source of self-belief. Other factors such as ambition, level of education, quality of one’s peers and many others can increase self-belief.
Ultimately the one who is able to combine the positive aspects of self-belief, group beliefs and religious beliefs is the one that will eventually succeed.
Online Reporter