When we are in the midst of the storm, it is sometimes hard to maintain high levels of faith in the ultimate outcome of our situation.  But this is precisely the time to cultivate our faith and persist.  Faith will allow us to find peace in the storm and find the next right action for our situation. 

advertisements-Reprogram Your Mind With Ease!!!

Courage is often defined as action in the face of fear and doubt.  We must have the courage during the storm to cultivate our faith even when it seems lacking.  This cultivated faith will then allow us to take positive action when we are in the middle of the storm.  This faith will not only serve us well during these prolonged tough times but it will also serve us well at all times in the future.

When you lack faith during the challenges of these tough times, consider the following examples and then take the three specific actions below to cultivate your faith to overcome any of your challenges!

Examples:

• When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it took over 2,000 experiments to get it right.  When a reporter asked how it felt to fail so many times, he said “I never failed once.  I invented the light bulb.  It just happened to be a 2,000 step process.”
• Richard Bach completed just one year of college, spent just twenty months as an Air Force jet fighter pilot before resigning, and worked as an editor of an aviation magazine as it went bankrupt.  Life simply became one failure after another.  When he wrote Jonathon Livingston Seagull, he couldn’t think of an ending.  The manuscript went unfinished for eight years before he finally came up with an ending.  It was then rejected by 18 publishers.  When it was finally published, it sold more than 7 million copies and made Richard Bach an internationally known and respected author.
• A young Canadian named Terry Fox had his cancer ridden leg amputated yet vowed to run on one leg from coast to coast through Canada to raise $1 million for cancer research.  Although he was forced to quit halfway through the attempt because the cancer had spread to his lungs, he did raise the funds and his foundation has gone on to raise ten of millions of dollars for cancer research.
• Victor Frankl survived a longtime capture in Nazi concentration camps even after suffering the loss of his father, mother, brother, and wife in those same concentration camps. He lost his loved ones, every possession and suffered from hunger, cold, and brutality.  Yet, he kept his faith, survived, and made a significant impact in this world.
• Admiral Jim Stockdale survived an eight-year imprisonment during the Vietnam War in which he was tortured over twenty times.  He went on to say about the experience, “I never lost faith in the end of the story.  I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”  Jim Collins coined the Stockdale Paradox on the basis of Admiral Jim Stockdale’s experience.  The Stockdale Paradox is to “Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND, at the same time, confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, wherever they might be.”

Cultivating Your Faith:

1. Remember that the only people who don’t have any problems are dead!  Consider that to give your situation perspective and begin creating an attitude and mindset to address all problems with true appreciation for the life you have been given to live (to its fullest).

2. All problems are just misdirected energy.  The problems of a down economy are just different than the problems of a booming economy.  They are all problems of misdirected energy.  We are all suffering from the general misdirected energy of greed and entitlement right now but these problems can be overcome.  Ask yourself how can I re-direct the energy of my situation to create solutions, peace, and abundance?  Then, take action to move the energy around you in that direction.

3. Become an inverse paranoid!  This is Principle #6 of Jack Canfield’s Success Principles and it means to believe that the universe is working to enrich, empower, and advance your causes.  If you need help thinking like an inverse paranoid, consider the following biblical verse:

“IF GOD BE FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?”  ROMANS 8:31

Ask yourself if you are aligning your thoughts and actions with your higher power.  If you are, you should immediately find peace and be motivated by right action.  If not, re-align your thoughts and deeds to gain peace during your storm and begin looking for the ways that the universe is conspiring in your favor! 

Ask yourself, how can I use this experience to my advantage?  Then, take action.  If that action does not lead to your expected outcomes, learn from it and know that God has something better in store for you.