Wagaliciousness Begins Here!

Have you ever thought about belief? We think of our own beliefs as correct and even judge others based on whether they believe the same way we do or not. Our beliefs feel so real, and so true, that we can’t imagine how others could possibly believe differently.

And yet they do. And they always will. And that’s not just OK, it’s what keeps life interesting.

Today is the 13^th anniversary of the end of the world. Well, except for that one small detail – it didn’t actually end 13 years ago. Harold Camping predicted the end of the world would happen in 2011, with the rapture occurring on May 21^st and the physical world coming to an end five months later. He was a darling of the media, appearing on any and every news outlet that would have him, and focusing the programming on his Family Radio Network around the mathematical and theological certainty of his predictions. He believed. He believed with such fervor that he torpedoed his own reputation and spent the rest of his days trying to di...

To start the new year off on the right foot, I attended a presentation about setting intentions and committing to them. Around the halfway point, when he had walked us through a couple of exercises, the speaker asked us to say aloud, “I am committed to my goals.” Throats opened and the room rang with loud, happy voices. Then he asked us to say, “I believe in my ability to achieve my goals.”

Totally different story. The response was more of a group mumble as people said words about themselves that they didn’t believe. The speaker then mentioned the late MLK Jr., asking us if social change would have happened had his level of commitment in the “I Have a Dream” speech been the same as what we just demonstrated.

The point was made – in order to lead and effect change, in order to achieve our own personal goals, and in order to be believed when we speak, we need to embody commitment. It can be tough to believe in ourselves – we’ve spent a lifetime looking for external validation, so makin...