Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 4:20 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
#1
Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
Hello everyone,

I was just wondering what everyone thinks of the popular philosophy that I see everywhere. It's on Oprah, in movies, and even in children's books.

I'm talking about the "believing in yourself" philosophy. That is, you can do anything if you just believe in yourself.

Personally, I can see the positive aspects of this philosophy. It gives us motivation to continue through hardships or to aspire for our dreams.

My critique is that this philosophy is not really realistic. I can aspire for my dreams, however, I still need other systems (such as getting help from others) in order to get to this so called "dream."

In other words, it is not sufficient in itself.

Thoughts?
Yes, I am a Christian on these forums. I am not here to judge or condemn, rather, I am here to debate, learn, and incite discussion. Yes, I think that my avatar is hilarious.
Reply
#2
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
Yes, one must get off their ass and take advantage of resources and opportunities available to them for things to happen.
Simply believing in yourself will not do the trick.
Reply
#3
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
(December 18, 2012 at 1:37 am)clemdog14 Wrote:


Carlo Strenger on his book "Fear of insignificance" makes a good case on this issue.

My take is that positive thought is just a way to fool ourselves that life has no problems. It does and we must accept that hardship is a part of it. We should allow ourselves to be sad from time to time.
Reply
#4
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
(December 18, 2012 at 1:37 am)clemdog14 Wrote:


It's demonstrably untrue that positive belief = positive results. As an example, think of someone with a terminal illness: their positivity is not likely to effect the outcome of their condition (although there are some 'placebo effects').

Also, there are factors which are outside of one's control/influence which mean that one's attitude cannot effect the outcome. As an example, think of someone who goes for a job interview: they may have a great attitude and be thinking positively but if there are many other candidates who are better suited to do the job, attitude will likely make no difference to the outcome.

Where positive thinking really makes a difference is in coping with challenge/failure/loss: if one can 'stay positive' (i.e. retain self-confidence), one has a better chance of learning lessons from the challenge/failure/loss and developing successful coping mechanisms.

There is a flip-side in that if the positivity is governed by self-delusion rather than self-confidence, the lessons learned aren't necessarily the appropriate ones (or aren't necessarily learned at all) therefore having a detrimental effect on one's future judgements.
Sum ergo sum
Reply
#5
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
I am constantly trying to be as best in control of myself as possible.
Reply
#6
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
(December 18, 2012 at 1:54 am)Voltron Wrote: Yes, one must get off their ass and take advantage of resources and opportunities available to them for things to happen.
Simply believing in yourself will not do the trick.

That is a nice idea. But in reality especially in an open market system it is STILL a ratio and you will have a smaller number reach the top, some that get to the middle and some that stay at the bottom.

I hate it when celebrities such as rich people, actors, musicians and sports stars say "you can do it if you try".

You can try, that part is true, and if that makes one happy, sure, give it a shot. But no one ever talks about the odds or even wants to face them. I think that kind of delusion can cause severe depression and home problems with many people.

Woopie Goldburg said it best on "Inside The Actors Studio" when an audience member asked her if she(the audience member) could get where she was at Woopie basically said "You are all capable of being great actors, but most will NOT end up sitting where I am now".

I think that is coming from our consumption society where people treat life as a script rather than a range. We never teach enough people that no matter what you do or want to do, while trying to do it, you should, we never teach them about the odds and end up setting them up for total failure and teach them that if they dont succeed they are deadbeat loosers. Whoopie probably saved a few lives in that audience by arming them with the truth.

Junior Sau(NFL player) killed himself because he felt empty about his career ending. Richard Jenny(comedian) killed himself because he hadn't gotten that big Sitcom like Seinfeld.

And many domestic murders are a result of feelings of failure be it over money and or relationships.

Far too often we teach scripts rather than teach people to be happy no matter what they want to do and arm them with reality no matter what they chose to do.

It is OK to chase after a dream. It is not ok to treat others as clones or like failures because they dont get to where you or at or may not want what you have.
Reply
#7
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
Ignorance is bliss.
Reply
#8
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
Believing in yourself is one of the key feature that helps some one to gain success. Though The movies and comics give such massages and being a practical person we some time do not agree with that but still it is an admitted fact that believe in yourself helps a lot to get to know about your self. If you know about yourself then you will know about your pros and cons. And by focusing on your best you may not get what ever you want but least you will feel yourself motivated and you will not loose hope.
Reply
#9
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
(January 11, 2013 at 1:30 am)Terry Wrote: Believing in yourself is one of the key feature that helps some one to gain success. Though The movies and comics give such massages and being a practical person we some time do not agree with that but still it is an admitted fact that believe in yourself helps a lot to get to know about your self. If you know about yourself then you will know about your pros and cons. And by focusing on your best you may not get what ever you want but least you will feel yourself motivated and you will not loose hope.

I wouldn't call it "believe in yourself" I would say "know yourself" both pro and con and accept yourself, and be yourself.

The problem with this meme of "believe in yourself" is that people will get depressed, suicidal or aggressive when they don't meet an unrealistic standard.
Reply
#10
RE: Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"
Thinking in a positive way in my perspective makes hard work do able, wether its at the gym or whether im doing a long shift in work with no sleep,
being at the gym is the best example, sometimes the song on my mp3 player can make the difference in my mentality and make the difference between me doing alright, good or excellent.
BUT one thing i HATE, and its mainly celebrities who do this, is when a successful person says "hey you just gotta believe in yourself, thats all i did" maybe they did believe in themselves but in the case of most celebrity recording artists or actors youre picked out of thousands of other people wanting to do exactly what you do who all believe in themselves and most of that choice is dependant upon your genetics, and secondly practice,
if youre lucky enough to have been born with good looks, a good metabolism, good vocal chords and so on, and you have the lifestyle which allows you to practice what you want to be good at several hours a day, then yeh you might be a successful recording artist or actor or actress.
People like lady gaga, maddona, justin beiber can talk about believing in yourself as much as they want but they all look above average in terms of looks i think. (lady gaga looks a bit weird and obviously maddona is old now but if they were stood in a bus station of people im pretty sure they would be considered in the top 10 percent of good looking people.) also they werent born into a war torn country or starvation,
and they are obviously natural born performers in my opinion.
But in conclusion it is important to believe in yourself or you wont even be able to do basic things like get sex (without paying for it) or get a job.


I just typed all this then looked up and realised id typed the same basic idea as what brian was getting at


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Thoughts on Courtly love (aka platonic love) Macoleco 16 1162 September 11, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Last Post: Jehanne
  Thoughts of Reason Foxaèr 22 1640 October 25, 2020 at 6:26 pm
Last Post: Sal
Lightbulb Some thoughts I felt compelled to share with anyone willing to listen, entheogen 22 2760 September 17, 2018 at 1:38 pm
Last Post: entheogen
  How our thoughts are formed? givepeaceachance 29 4135 May 24, 2018 at 5:27 am
Last Post: ignoramus
  Would you punish yourself? Foxaèr 23 2949 February 26, 2018 at 12:27 pm
Last Post: polymath257
  My thoughts on the Hard problem of consciousness Won2blv 36 5452 February 15, 2017 at 7:27 am
Last Post: bennyboy
  What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities? joseph_ 150 12079 September 3, 2016 at 11:26 am
Last Post: downbeatplumb
  Thoughts RozKek 17 2454 April 25, 2016 at 7:18 pm
Last Post: Edwardo Piet
  Ethics Class Homework Assignments: Critiques, Thoughts... Thanks! Mudhammam 6 2615 July 5, 2015 at 7:35 pm
Last Post: Mudhammam
  Being vs. Believing henryp 22 4201 May 27, 2015 at 12:01 pm
Last Post: henryp



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)