Self-confidence Is Overrated—What?!?

I was watching an episode from MarieTV the other day (I highly recommend going to www.marieforleo.com and signing up to receive her free weekly MarieTV Q&A video) where the comment “self-confidence is overrated” was made.  And Bam, in an instant, much of what I learned in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) fell into place in a way that I could communicate it!

I knew that my mindset had significantly changed in reading ACIM, especially when it comes to how I feel about my ability to accomplish the plans that have been assigned to me, but before hearing that simple comment I didn’t know how to express the confidence I felt in my ability to achieve these plans.  I didn’t all of the sudden become self-confident.  Instead, I became confident in God’s ability to work through me.  It was not about whether or not I could complete the plans He has for me.  That became a given.  Self-confidence became a non-issue.  It was irrelevant.  I trusted that there was a specific plan that had been set for me and that I had been sent here to carry out those plans.  I began to see that I was a piece in a divine orchestration and it was simply my responsibility to show up for my role.  I didn’t fret over whether or not I was capable of these plans.  Fretting didn’t make sense.  Whatever plans God had for me, they were perfectly suited to me, so why did I need to question my ability to carry them out?  I just needed to show up, listen, and follow.

The plans for each of us have already been set; it’s simply a matter of us opening to our respective plan and showing up.  The only confidence we need is in God’s ability to work through us.  When we begin to understand and open to this, life begins to take on a new cadence.  Stagnant energy is freed and set in motion towards that which we are meant to do.  As what we were sent here to do becomes our primary focus, all that we need to complete these plans begin to appear in our path.  It’s not necessarily that those things weren’t previously there; it’s that we didn’t notice them.  We couldn’t notice them.  Without a purpose to tie them to, there were no conditions in place for us to connect to them.  These conditions are put in place when we chose to open and align with our specific plan.  When this choice is made a veil is removed.    Where we were once asleep, blind to all that was around us, a light now shines on those things, making them readily available to us.

This shift in perspective drops us out of our head and into our heart.  When we are trapped in our head, we are bogged down by fearful and negative thoughts.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, these are ego’s way of keeping us from connecting to our inner guidance system or God.  The quickest way to move through these thoughts is to shift away from them, not to fight them or forcefully overcome them.  These thoughts lose their hold over us as our attention and energy shifts to what we need to do to accomplish the tasks that have been set for us as a part of our plan.

As we break free from our attachment to fearful and negative thoughts, space is created for guidance to enter our awareness.  It is in this freed up space that God reveals the details needed to carry out our respective plans.  This space that allows us to communicate with God is our birthright.  All of us have the ability to access it. It is a matter of choosing to create this space.  Self-confidence is not a requirement for any of this to occur.

Attempting to use self-confidence to overcome fearful or negative thoughts has the potential to shift ego from one set of thoughts to another.  It can shift us from feeling inferior through self-sabotaging, fearful, and negative thoughts to feeling superior through over-confident, competitive, I’m better than so and so thoughts.  In other words, when we do this, we still believe we are our egos.  The key is to give over to something greater than ourselves.  In this way, we clear the path for the Divine to work through us.  Shifting our focus to trusting in our ability to carry out the plans that God has assigned to us takes our attention off of our limiting thoughts and places it directly on the ability for God to lead us.  He created us specifically to carry out the plans that He set for us.  When we get this, we see that there is no time to waste thinking otherwise.  Instead, we allow ourselves to begin aligning with those greater plans.

I shared this a few blogs back from ACIM, but it bears repeating:

A healed mind does not plan.  It carries out the plans that it receives from listening to the Wisdom that is not its own.  It does not depend on itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill plans assigned to it.  It is secure in its certainty that obstacles cannot impede its progress to the accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone.

Let no defenses [ego] but your present trust direct the future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with the truth that only your defenses [ego] would conceal.

To keep myself focused on God’s plans and His ability to work through me, I frequently pray for the following:

God, please move me through inspiration in accordance with your plans.

Please use me as an instrument of Your work and will; an instrument of  peace, love, and joy; an instrument to help draw others onto their own truth; and as an instrument of emotional healing through the higher energies of spirit.

How may I serve? 

Then, I make it my responsibility to show up for what comes my way.  I’ve made a pact with myself to follow any inspiration that strikes.  To do otherwise is to shut down the flow of inspiration and I definitely do not want that!  Sometimes I’m moved to do something that I don’t experience an immediate result from.  In the past, this would have discouraged me from following inspiration that struck in a similar way.  But now I follow it anyway, trusting that a higher-intelligence knows far more than I ever could.  It’s not to say that I don’t experience feeling discouraged, because I do (as I’ve shared in past blogs).  But when I feel discouraged, I know it’s simply ego trying to take me out.  When this occurs, I recognize it as such and do my best to shift back into spirit.

In asking God how I could serve and create a more personal connection with others, I felt moved to start doing more videos to share with you in my blogs (hence the tour of my writing space from last week’s blog).  When this inspiration initially struck, I was moved to make four videos in a period of four days…to be doled out over time, of course. 😉  I set the intention and when I received guidance through inspiration, I followed it in the manner in which I was being directed.

In following this inspiration, I was led to create and share the following video—a spiritual chat straight from the hiking trail!

I encourage you to show up for the Divine to work through you by simply being open to it.  The dance between intentions based in spirit and guidance is what brings our relationship with the Divine to life.  It’s so much fun!

Much love to all,

Shanna

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