Sam Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 I struggle with things. Everyday life things. Shooting helps me to see more clearly. I suspect I'm not the only one here who sees life/shooting parallels. So, why do we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again? Consider this explaination. Without true belief, everything, and I mean everything, is suspect. With out solid belief, all so called "truth" is subjective to some other interpretation. I'm reminded of Bill Clinton's statement under oath. "It depends on what the meaning of is, is." In my mind, that statement defined the entire man. Today, in a moment of clarity, this concept that had been circling in my head for days, came in for a landing: There is no such thing as partial belief. There are no degrees of it. It's either faith or unbelief. The light is either switched on or it is switched off. The unbelieving mind is totally incapable of true discernment. First we must fully believe. Only then can we see, trust, and act accordingly. So, day in, day out, every step of my life. I either call my shot or launch a "hoper". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Di Vita Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself often well beyond any latent ability previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses. Awesome post bro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Most things are hard, so when we get an easy one, we appreciate it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 The light is either switched on or it is switched off. The U.S. Army is currently running a TV promotional spot to this effect...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Anderson Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 I often wonder myself why the universe is arranged the way it is, that life is so difficult. hmmmmm. SA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Arranged? Chaos? Maybe it is all relative. Maybe if everything was perfect, then our definitions of the extremes would change. Perhaps things could be a lot better...or a lot worse...and we would percieve them the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 We're plunked down here to hone our decision-making skills......... If our decisions are flawed (or hesitant), life can appear as chaos; if our decisions are sound and crisply made, it can appear 'arranged'. If things were 'perfect' the extremes would likely not exist. It's an issue of management. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted May 13, 2003 Share Posted May 13, 2003 The unbelieving mind is totally incapable of true discernment. Sam, You said quite a bit in your original post, and I'm with you on most of it. Especially the "there's no such thing as a partial belief." If you really examine the network of belief, you'll find that every single thought contains the essence of belief. Every word, sentence, or string of thoughts is supported by the belief that "the word is the thing described." When in fact every word we think or say is nothing but an association we've absorbed from our environment, and simply repeated over and over. Now when you smile or laugh, that's a different story. But I have to disagree with the quoted sentence. And I'm hopin' I don't "screw you up too much," but for me, only the mind not bound by belief is capable of truly discerning, without prejudice. I'm not saying that belief is not necessary, because you must have deep belief in your skills before you can consistently accomplish a given task. But in the instant of the activity itself, observe - a totally calm, thoughtless, attentive mind harmonizes your will with the activity itself. Or put differently, do the activities of observation, recognition, and confirmation have anything to do with believing? be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck D Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 I learned a great deal about belief in myself two years ago when I went back to school after an 18 year break since high school. On a daily basis I'm thrust into situations I have no experience in. You either learn to adapt to your situation and learn something positive from it or you fail. Your forced to depend mostly upon yourself as an adult student, the majority of your Professors time is spent with the "younger" students. Your expected to be able to "get yourself through" . Just like your expected to do in real life. If you have a built in "belief mechanism" you'll do fine regardless of the difficulty level. If you don't you either develop one or you struggle. Shooting used to be a chore for me. I was always afraid of failure. When I made Master Class in Limited it was expected of me to always shoot a master class score when in reality I wasn't really sure how I got there. Shooting became a struggle because I didn't have a complete belief in my abilities. Here is where all this psychobabble comes to a tangible meaning for me. If you believe in yourself, your abilities, your self worth and you give YOURSELF 100% effort...you'll succeed at whatever you set your mind to do. You can't do it for any other reason and you can't rely on anyone else to "pull you through". The struggle is your own and the end result can be shared with others (especially those close to you) but at the end of the day true success or failure lies within you and nobody else. Be it a 3.80 GPA or a Top 15 overall finish at the IPSC Canada Nationals in Standard Division, take pride in the fact that you accomplished it through hard work,worry and self performance. Every day is a struggle, nothing you ever get for free has any value. You may get knocked down but you get back up,dust yourself and continue on. The true measure of a champion lies in the effort. You may never win "the big one" but your a champion if you continue to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THS Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 Cool post Chuck, I have had very similar revelations in my shooting, and in going back to college after 19 years as well. I wish I could make some of them translate in to the rest of my life..... I've found new levels of performance in bullseye shooting happened when I finally relaxed and trusted myself to perform well. It was like a great confidence had been added to my mental game, and my scores went from low 280's to the 290's, regularly. On top of that, my match scores, individual and team, were above my average and practice scores. I'm convinced that the improved match performance was due to simple confidence; I no longer felt pressure to post a good score but rather KNEW I was going to be above the pack. I was at a class given by a guy who does some work with some people in the Fort Bragg area, (no I wont say who, when, or where) and he made a really cool comment. "The body wont go where the mind hasn't been." Seems like a strong endorsement for visualization exercises, and dovetailed into what I'd experienced. Once I believed it, I gcould do it, virtually on demand. Trust in your skills, sights and trigger and you'll see new performance limits. Cool thread..... Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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