"It's the repetition of affirmation that leads to belief, and once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen" - Muhammad Ali
I mentioned in my introduction that believing in yourself can act as catalyst to your progress. I have been through work where I never really had any sort of belief until I become good at it and it helped me progress faster. But what was more interesting is working on something I enjoyed doing. Playing football for the first time with a group of friends at 13 years old I was still acting like I was the best in the team when the fact of the matter is, I haven't touched a football since I was 9 years old playing for my primary school team. At that moment I was actually being schooled by some of the younger guys while at 13 years old all I was good at was making excuses.
I stopped playing and decided to do my own training and at that time I was not playing any football for a few months and I was also overseas which helped me stay focused. What got me into football was all the freestyle and tricks I watched people do on the internet which made me want to practice them myself. The moment came when I successfully accomplished a few of the tricks and what I felt after that was not just joy but felt like I was at new level. I remember that while I practiced I was feeling like I have already done this before and that I was good at it even though I was failing over and over and over. I also started watching football and become a huge fan of Cristiano Ronaldo, who at the time was only 19, and his style of play in the football field was exactly what I wanted to copy.
Getting back to playing football with my friends, I came back with the same attitude that I left with them when I decided to train on my own, that attitude was "I am the best player", but this time instead of being schooled again by the younger guys, I was actually better since I practiced on my own. I was slowly becoming an important player for my team and at the time everyone knew that I was mimicking Cristiano Ronaldo which they made fun off, but that didn't really stop me from doing what I wanted and I was loving every bit of it.
The point of the story is that I used this sort of attitude towards everything I did, especially the things I loved doing, because to me all I was saying to myself was "I am the best at what I do and I have to make sure of it" and at any time if I was failing I would again be saying to myself "your better than that, doing it again, don't fail it". This is what made me get my engineering degree, this is what made me better at interacting with people, and it plays the biggest part in who I have become so far.
It was a "fake it till you make it" approach but since it only affected me in a good way and was not harming anyone else, then I was not gonna say no.
Always belief you are good at what you do, and practice it like there is no tomorrow.