Aug 15, 20224 min read

Your Three Pillars of A Winning Foundation

Character, Competence and Confidence - Break Through External Obstacles (3)

Confidence is inside out and the reflection of essence of life

This year, July was the second warmest month in 151 years of record-keeping. Three trees in my yard shedded leaves in response to the heat, over 90 degrees for over three weeks. I thought the trees died. However, after a rainfall, when the weather turned cooler, to my surprise, the trees sprouted out new leaves. What made the trees come to alive again and become more vigorous? Their deep roots underground!

You are on the journey to Grow to Your Fullest, Step 3, the series of Breaking through External Obstacles. Today I am sharing the three pillars of a winning foundation that can help you stand firm during hard times and bloom after that and win in life.

Like a tree, to survive after being tortured by heat and regain its vigor and grow stronger, we must develop strong roots.

The process of growing to the fullness is tedious, long, painful and lonely. How can we transcend unexpected problems, challenges, and obstacles? How can we win the crown of life so we can be empowered to achieve our fullest? We have to have a foundation with three pillars (Figure 1- 3Cs), Character, Competence, and Confidence.

Character

To build a durable character, we have to nourish our minds, thoughts, and hearts with God’s words as His word is a lamp for our feet, a light on our path (Psalm 119:105). His words build our integrity, the core winning principle in life.

A person with integrity is pure in heart, congruent with his behavior; he is impeccable with his words, walks his talks; he acts in harmony with his deepest beliefs and values. When a person is in harmony with oneself, it is harder for people to pick apart his faults and attack him. And the integrity gives him courage to stand firm and confront the wrongs of the world.

James Doty is generous and a person of integrity. Early in his career he was heavily involved in developing technologies that made him very wealthy. With a net worth of $75 million, he pledged $30 million to charity. Not long after the pledge, the dot.com crashed and he lost everything except for the pledged stock. His lawyers advised him to get out of the pledge but he refused. He followed through with the pledge.

Jon Huntsman, the author of Winners Never Cheat, said, “Character is most determined by integrity and courage. Your reputation is how others perceive you. Character is how you act when no one is watching.” Before we are able to confront the forces against us from the external, we have to build a God-centered character to archive success in the long run. Die to Ego tells us how to build a flawless character.

Competence

To release our full potential, we have to have the capability to deliver results, like a tree that is able to grow leaves, bloom in the right seasons, and finally bear fruit. To build our competitive advantages, use our unique talents ordained from God and align our dream with our calling, passion, and personality, as discussed in the post, Find Your Signature Vision.. And through discipline, hard work and learning, become experts in the areas we are uniquely talented.

Confidence

Confidence is self-trust. American essayist Ralph Emerson said, “Self-trust is the first secret of success.” Confidence is inside out and the reflection of essence of life.

Confidence provides us with three kinds of power. It inspires the power of hope and propels us to act positively with the assurance of winning; it releases the power of courage to win battles in life; it gives us the power of laser focus on what we can do.

>> Refer to the Power of Confidence and How to build your confidence

Once you own a flawless character and develop your competence, you may gain some level of confidence. To have a lasting and unshakable confidence, you have to have faith in God. You cannot fight the battles alone; neither can you have the strength all the time in constant battle. You cannot live out your fullness without partnering with a divine force, God, as HE is the one who planted the seeds of your fullness, so the initiator also knows the path to your fullness. As it’s written, “You made known to me the path of life” (Psalm 16:11). You have to be guided by Him on the journey to build your character, competence and confidence.

The three pillars seamlessly work together to conquer all the external forces against us – slander, rejection, jealousy, temptation and hurt, etc. Character lets us stand firm when being attacked, competence makes us bear fruit, and confidence helps us win all the battles. We develop the three pillars with our faith in God. If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

In the next post, I will discuss the foundation of confidence - faith and its six elements to help you build lasting confidence and grow to your fullest.

If you want to have a group of people to support so you can share your roadmap, goals, celebrate your wins together; please join Grow to Your Fullest Circle.

*** Please DOWLOAD the FREE document, Find your signature vision questionnaires so you use it to help you find your life vision and mission.