Leap of Faith
Imagine a situation. You are on cross-roads with a choice of either pursuing a seemingly unachievable task or settling for what, you believe, is easily achievable.
I believe the only thing driving a person to the less probable branching out of the decision tree is – ‘a belief so strong that makes you trust in your abilities to succeed in an otherwise irrational move.’ This is the ‘Leap of Faith.’
While taking such as step in the vacuum of pure belief and audacity, how does a person know that a stair will be created or appear out of nowhere. After an action, we always have the benefit of the hindsight. But having a faith which makes you believe that forces are with you and that staircase for your journey will appear in places where none existed (or at least did not seem to exist). This faith can be a function of several things. You might require some foolishness to start with. The apparent foolishness may be due to your unwillingness to buy others’ words for determining the possibility (or impossibility) of a task. You have to be a believer. Sometimes, being headstrong helps in overcoming external environments and distractions. Confidence is needed but is an overvalued virtue – breakthroughs of the highest order are more an outcome of diligence and perseverance than of confidence.* (those disagreeing to this may read a note at the end)
Some important variables which we fail to acknowledge after achievement are the things that fell into place without an overt effort from us and the factors which worked miraculously well in our favor. These are some key variables. Cosmos conspiring to set a staircase for us is an unsung yet important requirement. Generally, each step of the staircase appears only when you have made a step in the vacuum anticipating that one step would appear just in time saving you from falling. After a person achieves success, the ‘apparent’ foolishness to pursue the goal may be redefined by the historians as vision and ingenuity.
To make you relate more to what we are talking about, I will provide you with some examples. Taking a commonplace example – a guy proposing a girl or vice versa. A person goes ahead with the proposal aware of all the consequences and anticipates all the levels of positive and negative reciprocation. The person might not be confident but makes the advance aware of the fact that he (she) can end up making complete fool of himself (herself). The following quote by Sarah Dessen encapsulates it all.
“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”
Another example for Leap of Faith is from an awesome TV-series of our times – ‘LOST’. When people are stuck on a mysterious island which throws up strange, paranormal events, their thought process is transformed radically. Though the inhabitants are not fully aware of the forces operational on the island and the outcomes of their actions, they begin taking leaps of faith and act in ways which otherwise would have looked foolish. I am quoting a dialog from a character Eloise Hawking (kind of omniscient person on the show) to Jack (a doctor).
Oh, stop thinking how ridiculous it is, and start asking yourself, whether or not, you believe it's going to work. That's why it is called "leap of faith", Jack.
This makes Jack change his thought process and transition from being a confident controller to just backing his inner thought process without worrying about being answerable to people (or how is he going back it up logically).
Looking into more examples in our lives, we can talk about a typical middle-class Indian or a common man without a strong legacy. Belonging to a middle background in an Indian context, a person might have to take 2-3 leaps of faith to make dreams come true or to get out of the clutter of mediocrity. From the beginning, we are trained to loathe mediocrity as a curse. We have to put in the hard yards for differentiating ourselves in exacting examinations and stringent cut-offs. These may have low impact on the society as a whole but it requires leaps of faith from tender minds that have just learned how competitive the world is. It can be a thoroughly exhausting exercise or a thoroughly enjoyable, roller-coaster ride full of kicks.
Generally these journeys cannot be embarked upon by a lone soul. You need a good, solid support/ support group.
What gets well documented for the competition we face is the statistics about percentiles and cut-offs. What does not get documented is what kind of support, mostly selfless, exists for the people.
Before beginning a seemingly difficult task, we might think that our ideas would not find takers with many and it is going to be a case of lone ranger. It is very interesting to observe that once you begin doing something very passionately and in goodwill towards people with whom don’t have direct contact, a support network appears out of nowhere. The idea brings best out of some people. A person might be useful for some job you never expected of him/her. It transforms a group of otherwise innocuous looking group into something very focused, potent and committed. People, who are encouraging you and willing to go the extra mile with you, will appear out of nowhere. This is a leap of faith on the part of trier which inherently assumes that your thoughts and dreams will re-image into others’ minds, that you will make friends with the people you have not met face to face and that they will share your destiny. At time foolishness pays. It is a virtue easier acquired than courage, self-confidence and audacity.
You are at the end nothing but the choices you make – either be a cynic and sit on the outside or take a leap of faith and be ready for a roller coaster ride.
To sum it up I will use a quote from James Cameroon.
“There are many talented people who haven't fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.”*Note: One might say confidence arises out of diligence and confidence is necessary to move towards a goal; but when the discussion is about dealing with unknowns in an equation, it would not hurt you much even if you are nervous and unsure given you are highly aware. Confidence is more of an appearance you give to the external environment or a way to hypnotize yourself into believing something. It is more apt for repeat actions than for achieving something for the first time. For instance, Vasco-da-Gama’s voyage to India was the longest made by the time out of sight of land. Though he was not confident of finding India but his attempt was a relentless one.
Excerpt from 'Death in Venice'
The aperture through which the sand runs is so tiny that first it seems as if the level in the upper glass never changes. To our eyes, it appears that the sand runs out only at the end... and until it does, it's not worth thinking about. Till the last moment... when there's no more time... when there's no more time left to think about it.
-Thomas Mann
