Greetings from a rainy Saturday night in San Francisco. I’m sorry I didn’t publish a post on Thursday like I normally do, but hopefully this will make up for it. The other day, I had coffee with a friend. We had one of those rare conversations that pierces straight through all the facade and veneer and just really touches something deep within you, the kind of conversation you wish you could just bottle and place on a high shelf somewhere. So, I wanted to share something from that conversation with you.

Until recently, I always associated the word, “faith” with religion. Probably because that’s the context in which it's most commonly used and also I never really took the extra time to think very hard about it. But last week in my reading, I came across a quote by Swami Vivekananda which made me see faith in a different way. What we actually mean by the word "faith" is belief in something we have no real evidence to support. But this stretches far beyond belief in religion.

Here are some other things we use faith for: belief in yourself, belief in your own ideas and dreams. You can believe in luck. You can have faith that another person will come through for you when you need them. There are countless other ways that we exercise our mental faith muscles aside from religious affiliation. No matter what it actually is that you believe, your faith is simply the word we use to describe your conviction in that belief.

Summary

As you wrap up your weekend, consider all the things you hold to be capital-T Truth. Additionally, think about the strength of your faith in those beliefs. In the movie, Pearl Harbor one of the actors says: “Victory belongs to those who believe in it the most.” Sometimes, it’s not actually external obstacles that get in your way, but your own self-doubt. Having and building strong faith, regardless if you're religious or not can be essential for persisting and pushing past the doubt.