George Michael Was Right. You Gotta Have Faith
The following is adapted from Responsibility Rebellion.
In 1986, the big-haired, smooth, and handsome 80’s pop idol George Michael realised he’d been living inauthentically, so in 1987, he returned with a whole new look with his debut solo album, Faith.
For those who aren’t religious in any way, faith can seem like an uncomfortable word. Its significance is deeply entrenched in religious connotations. However, at its core, faith simply means having trust in somebody, something, or in achieving a certain outcome.
George Michael was right. If you want to make progress in your work, relationships, or life – you gotta have faith for it!
When you have faith, you stop living with an expectation of the worst-case scenarios happening and instead start living with an expectation of the best-case scenarios happening – eventually. By doing this, you start to make decisions from a place of peace rather than fear, stress, or chaos.
Still, something might be holding you back from taking George Michael’s advice, and if I had to guess, I’d say it’s fear. Stop worrying about whether you’re “good enough” and learn to have faith in yourself and your future. That’s the most powerful step you can take toward achieving the things you want in life.
Fear Is Holding You Back
No one wants to live an insignificant life where they waste away in a dead-end job that means nothing to them. Be honest, you’d much rather live an exciting life full of enjoyment, passion, and vigour. So, what’s holding you back?
One thing and one thing only—fear. Fear keeps people trapped in the land of worst-case scenarios, “what if”s and “I’m not good enough”s. Fear is the result of not having faith.
People with low self-esteem and low confidence have little to no faith in their ability to turn their lives around; they have no faith in their potential or their prospects. Their lack of faith makes them pessimistic and afraid and, therefore, more inclined to live a conservative and reserved life.
It’s not an overstatement to say that most people are crippled by fear. You’d be surprised how often people limit themselves to safe spaces, things, people, habits, environments, careers, and challenges. They choose comfort over freedom because their fear of the future outweighs their faith in themselves. For years of my life, I chose job security, social groups, people-pleasing, and social climbing in order to get ahead in life. I found out the hard way that compromising my own integrity and standards to fit in with other people was imprisoning rather than liberating.
Living with faith is the polar opposite of living with fear. When you have faith, you stop living with an expectation of the worst-case scenario. You make decisions from a place of peace rather than anxiety, stress, tension, and chaos.
George Michael named his album Faith because he knew that everything would turn out alright, notwithstanding trials and tribulations, because he had enough faith in himself to persevere. His faith was proactive. He said, “I’m not going to stay complacent; I’m going to get out there and do something that matters!”
That kind of faith is the bedrock of true success.
The Beauty of Taking Risks
Acting in faith is a two-part equation. When you have faith that you can handle hardships, you naturally develop another important quality: the willingness to take risks.
Risk and faith are symbiotic. They cannot exist effectively without being fully reliant on each other.
Risk is required for change to take place, and faith is necessary to free yourself from being controlled by fear. In order to move beyond fear or stagnation, you must embrace risk and step out into the unknown – and in faith for more fulfilling life outcomes tomorrow than what you’re currently experiencing today.
A single incident in my early twenties made me aware of the dichotomy between faith and fear. I was living in Australia at the time, backpacking up the West Coast to Darwin. One day, one of my companions announced that he’d bagged us a boat with a glass bottom. He’d heard that the giant turtles had recently had their babies and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for all of us to sail out and go scuba diving to try to catch a glimpse of them.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we packed our wetsuits and dashed out to sea in the early hours. I was swimming in blissful tranquillity until, suddenly, I realized there was a big bull shark nearby. I felt utterly powerless, but strangely, that powerlessness gave me peace. Why should I worry about something I couldn’t control?
Acting in faith is a two-part equation. When you have faith that you can handle hardships, you naturally develop another core quality – a willingness to take risks.
My panic faded, and my friends and I calmly discussed the situation. We had a 50 per cent chance of getting attacked, so the question was: did we want to risk seeing the turtles or not? Those turtles could potentially be the last things we saw, but would we feel more at peace with completing our mission? We decided that we’d come this far already and we might as well try to see them.
They were utterly beautiful and worth every ounce of fear we felt that day. And, as you’ve probably deduced, we made it back to the boat just fine.
Living in faith involves taking risks and accepting that you cannot control the things that happen to you. All you’re able to control in life is how you respond to what happens to you. When you respond from a place of faith, not fear, you are always making the right decision.
To some people, this may seem naive, but I would argue that it’s far more effective than living a life dominated by anxiety, fear, and worry. I’ve never met a successful person with the mantra, “You gotta worry, worry, worry.”
Taking your Leap of Faith
When your emotional and mental well-being is heavily influenced by unmonitored thoughts and external circumstances, you immediately become disempowered and out of control.
Proactive people always choose to rise above their circumstances by responding to them in a way which encourages and promotes personal development and growth. Stepping outside of the comfort zone, and into unchartered territory, IN FAITH for the best case outcomes eventually happening, is a sure-fire way of making this happen.
George Michael knew exactly what he was talking about, which is why his chart-topping song “Faith” still reverberates through shower rooms, car showrooms, nightclubs, shopping centres and karaoke halls worldwide. Success and faith walk perfectly hand-in-hand. You must take risks, act boldly and move forward in FAITH to achieve your goals, hopes and major life ambitions.
So, take your first leap of faith today and just keep on leaping.
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The main influencing factor that leaves countless people worldwide disempowered in their thinking & fruitless in their action-taking is a lack of personal responsibility. Responsibility proceeds all personal empowerment.
