SELF – PERCEPTION

By Joneil Alcock

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence; but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  – Aristotle

Any man that has climbed upon the peaks of greatness has come to realize a few noble truths. He cannot progress up the mountain without forming meaningful habits for the endeavour. He cannot create and sustain the habits without a proper perception of self.

A track athlete knows this. He must go through the pain and agony of training and failure to practise his craft to run, jump or throw. A university student trying to get good grades knows this. He must go through the tedious task of attending classes, taking notes and studying books to do well in tests and examinations. An Artist knows this. He must spend countless hours practising painting, ballet, playing the piano or designing to allow creativity to flow better and to garner master of his art.

With any person aiming to move beyond their current stage, there is a learning period and to sustain their excellence, habits have to be developed. What is even more telling is that while these things happen, the mind has to crack its tough shell of false beliefs. For the sprinter, it may be the time he thinks he can run. For the student, it may be the grades he thinks he can achieve. For the designer, it may be the ability to create a specific new design.

Whatever task put before a man he can accomplish it (once it’s realistic) but it happens by realizing just what he was not capable of. Every master was once a beginner and every task once thought impossible started as a kernel of an idea within a man’s imagination. Once the habituation commences self confidence rises, then self-esteem improves and then self-perception develops over and over again.

What do you perceive about yourself? What do you think you can or cannot do? Open the mind to possibilities; see a new world and never look back.

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“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matthew 17:20

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26