Believing In Yourself Is Not Enough To Really Succeed

If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

She needed a hero, so she became one.

Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable.

Your only limit is your mind.

If there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.

These are some of the quotes that Pinterest has to offer on believing in yourself. A recent search of the topic “believe in yourself” in the books category on Amazon yielded over 10,000 results. And many a youngster is told that if she just believes in herself, she can do anything.

Self-motivation and self-esteem can be good things, but if you’re like me, then you’ve had times when you believed in yourself, put in all the hard work, fought hard to achieve, and flat out failed. Or, you’ve had times when all the pep talks and all the self-help books in the local library and all the Pinterest quotes in the world couldn’t make you believe in yourself.

That is a terrifying place to end up. Because believing in yourself is not enough.

You Shall Have No Other Gods

I understand the purpose of the Believe In Yourself movement, but there’s a certain danger in following it: the danger of self-idolatry.

Merriam-Webster defines “god” as:

1. the supreme or ultimate reality, or
2. a being or object that is worshipped as having more than natural attributes and powers.

When God made the first commandment, he wasn’t just talking about golden calves or statues made of stone. Anything you put concentrated amounts of faith in can become a god, including yourself. (See my post What is Your Modern Day Golden Calf?)

If you only put your trust in yourself, who only has natural attributes and power, you aren’t any better off than the Israelites who made themselves a golden calf to worship. You are not a god or goddess any more than the golden calf was.

Putting faith in the wrong place is a risky gamble.

When Failure Strikes

I don’t know anybody who has never failed. We are, after all, flawed humans. You might be very good at what you do, but you still have weaknesses. No matter how successful you’ve been at something, one day you will put your faith in yourself, and your self will fail.

A ship once considered unsinkable is now resting under 12,600 feet of water.

A ship once considered unsinkable is now resting under 12,600 feet of water after one of the most famous tragedies in history. Believing in its ability didn’t save the 1,500-plus people who died that night.

Failure is a rough moment. The champion runner injures a knee. The highly esteemed singer forgets her words on stage. The world-renowned cardiac surgeon loses a patient during surgery.

All will have to come to grips with the very fact that we are not gods.

Believing in Yourself is Not Enough: Be Like the Trees

Maybe this is the quote you should frame and hang on your bedroom wall: 

The secret to the life of a tree is that it remains rooted in something deeper and other than itself.

I want to put my faith in something greater than myself, because when I fail—and I eventually will—I can be assured that someone stronger will pick me up and carry me through. I can be greater through a power that is greater than I am.

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Don’t put unreasonable pressure on yourself to be a god. Believing in yourself is not enough. But if you really want to go all the way and be more than you ever imagined, believe in what God can do through someone like you.

Dig Deeper

Psalm 121 is a great place to go for someone who is ready to put her faith in the Someone who is greater than all things. This is one of my go-to places in the Bible when I know that believing in myself is not enough.

Another favorite confidence-boosting verse is Philippians 4:13. Read my post about how that verse applies to failure!