This lesson might seem controversial to some people, especially those who do not believe in the existence of a higher power. However, this course would be incomplete if I don’t teach you the role that faith plays in the lives of aspiring Laureates. While this is not a lesson about religion, it should be obvious to you that these two are related because prayer is a means to keep your faith alive.
Unfortunately, in the current day and age, faith can sometimes be viewed as an old-fashioned or cringy topic, especially among teenagers. When was the last time you talked about faith with your peers at school? Probably never. It’s not something that students typically find “cool”. Hopefully, this lesson will convince you otherwise. To become a Laureate, you need to be willing to do what others are not doing. One of those things is having faith – faith in yourself and faith in the future.
Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase – Martin Luther King, Jr
To understand the importance of Faith, you must understand and accept the following important life lesson from Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize 1952:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the Key to success.
While this quote has important implications in multiple aspects of life, when it comes to your studies, it can be translated as follows:
Becoming a Laureate is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to becoming a Laureate.
This is not rocket science. You don’t need to have a PhD in positive psychology (however, I strongly recommend you investigate this topic further) to understand this. You don’t even need to be a highly spiritual being to grasp this because it is so obvious. We all study better when we are happy. We all perform better during a test or an exam when we are happy.
There are many ways to define happiness. Some might describe it as the absence of sadness. However, when it comes to studying to become a Laureate, I choose to define it as the absence of ALL negative emotions and feelings. Thus, happiness is the absence of:
Fear
Sadness
Anger
Grief
Jealousy
Anxiety
Panic
Frustration
These negative emotions hold you back in so many ways. Fear can discourage you from asking questions in class for fear of being called “stupid”. Anger, anxiety, panic or frustration can make you lose focus, especially during exams. Sadness and grief considerably diminish your level of motivation, which can undermine your level of consistency. Jealousy leads to overthinking about what your peers are doing. This drains a lot of your time and energy. These are just a few of many examples. I encourage you to think about other examples on your own.
Imagine if you were free from all those negative emotions. Wouldn’t that be great? Unfortunately, we cannot always stay away from such emotions. We are only human beings after all. However, we can eliminate them if and when they arise through the proper use of faith.
Faith eliminates negative emotions, which leads to happiness, which in turn leads to success.
It is my duty to inform you that faith plays an important part in the studies of most Laureates. During my studies, I used to wake up very early in the morning to pray for my success. Those prayers did not go in vain. Faith, when mixed with effort, becomes an essential ingredient for success. If you’ve ever watched interviews of Laureates on results day, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Most Laureates attribute faith and prayers as important components of their success.
Remember that this whole topic is about managing your emotions. Faith is one of the best tools you can use to achieve that. In this lesson, I’ve taught you why happiness is the key to success.
Now, I’ll tell you why faith is a crucial component of happiness. You already know that when it comes to your studies, you should view happiness as the absence of negative emotions and by extension, the presence of positive ones. Here’s what faith can do for you:
Faith attracts positive emotions, just like a flame attracts moths. Faith repels negative emotions, just like mosquito spray repels mosquitos.
In a nutshell, faith refers to the belief that good things are to come. It’s more than just hoping or wishing for good things to come. Instead, faith resides in the core of one’s heart and spirit. It’s not something that can be readily explained using logical and rational arguments. However, it IS there, and you can use it to your advantage in your quest to become a Laureate. It’s something deep inside of you that can help you find happiness by eliminating the negativity inside you. As examples, consider the following triggers of negative emotions:
You are scared of not becoming a Laureate.
You are sad because your friends performed better than you for a test.
You are angry because the teacher was very strict while marking your essay.
You are jealous because your friend always ranks first in class.
You are anxious because you have an upcoming exam.
Here are simple ways you can use faith to eliminate each of those negative emotions:
Tell yourself that you ARE going to become a Laureate. This is the single most powerful thing you can tell yourself if you ever find yourself lacking confidence.
Tell yourself that you ARE going to perform better than them the next time.
Tell yourself that thanks to this strict marking, you WILL improve the quality of your essay next time.
Tell yourself that you CAN and WILL rank first next time.
Tell yourself that you have prepared well for this exam (I assume you did!) and this WILL ensure that you perform well.
The list I’ve given above is just a small sample of such triggers. We experience negative emotions because we think of things that could go wrong. When we decide to think of the things that could go right instead and firmly believe that these will happen, we are using faith. Do we experience negativity when we are thinking of good things? Of course not. Therefore, faith clears negativity out of our mind and cultivates a sense of positive thinking, which leads to happiness. This, of course, leads to Success, that is, leads to you becoming a Laureate. Hence, aspiring Laureates should not neglect the importance of faith if they want to achieve their goal.
Therefore, the Key Takeaway is:
Have faith.
Do you have any questions or comments? Post them below!