This is not about religion but about belief in yourself — in your strength, abilities and possibilities. Many books and other sources are full of the idea that nothing works without belief in yourself and that any effective endeavour starts with that belief. There is certainly something in it. Proving to someone that at 50 they can significantly change their life with my book alone is quite hard. I would even say it is impossible if they don't believe it themselves. So yes, without belief in yourself there can be no achievements or personal wins. Belief in yourself is one of the first things someone who wants to get anywhere with productivity needs. Lack of belief is often put down to all sorts of factors, from low self-esteem to laziness. But that is not the subject of this book, and I am not an expert on people's mental and psychophysical traits. To state the idea again: "Belief in yourself and in what you are doing is very important for anyone, and it is a fundamental part of any effective planning."
On the other hand, you have to be realistic. How many people do you know who achieved something significant solely through belief in themselves? Honestly, I can't think of a single name. Blind belief without a well-thought-out plan is a guaranteed failure. In essence, belief and a clear plan are what you need to get your effectiveness started. People often have no problem with belief, especially at the beginning. There's belief to spare in the first weeks of some masterclass or challenge, but the lack of a well-thought-out plan ends up undoing all their efforts and may even push them into depression because others succeeded and they didn't. And the main problem is not that people are incapable of sticking to a plan and achieving something substantial — it's the plan itself or the fact that the plan was not set by them. They don't have experience of effective planning and proper goal-setting, so their first attempt fails. When people can't follow their plans, they end up losing both belief in themselves and their sense of their own strength. Or the plans are set for them by someone else: e.g. coaches running trainings and challenges, who can only with a stretch be called experts in planning and who produce all plans and recommendations in a one-size-fits-all way, without considering the person and their life. So not everyone can follow these plans; many give up and, as a result, lose belief in themselves too. I'll say it again: blind belief in yourself without a plan is the fast track to failure.
Unfortunately many books and especially online courses are built on nothing but blind belief. Honestly, I almost stopped reading Think and Grow Rich (though I had never before quit a book I'd started and always finished what I began) — in that book one of the very first sections is about belief in yourself, and to my mind it's described far too fanatically. I can think of another recent example, a blogger in Russia. A guy whose name I didn't bother to remember was selling online courses on effectiveness. Those courses consisted of the principle of belief in yourself. Outraged buyers demanded refunds and the police got involved. So remember: belief alone will not get you far.
