What is Faith?

A couple of years ago I thought it’s only something for religious people. People who believe in God. And people who draw certainty – or at least deal with their uncertainty – in this way.

Now, I kind of still see it the same way…

But also different…

I have learned to see that faith is nothing that is reserved for religious folks. Whether you believe in a God or some transcendent force or not…

You are running on faith… 24/7.

When I realised this for myself, it fundamentally transformed the way I look at the world.

And it was something that helped me to find peace with the tremendous uncertainty that I – and everyone else – experiences as they go through life…

So, here I want to break down what got me there…

…and how you can learn from my experience to step into the next level of experiencing life…

How I Got Here…

When I started my studies in psychology six years ago, I was quite a different person than I am today.

I wasn’t that confident (although on the outside it might have looked like that). Yet, I was ambitions.

But this combination made me anxious…

Whenever I started something I committed to it and pursued it only to stop the very thing because I didn’t know where it was going or whether it would get me the results that I was hoping for.

This was the case for:

• Going to the gym

• Learning 3d Software

• Wanting to start a business

• (these are just some of many examples)

Although I dabbled in all of the above, I never really stuck with these things…

At some point, sooner or later, there uncertainty crept into the process. As I got better at whatever I was pursuing at the moment, the challenges became greater and greater… And so did my uncertainty and anxiety.

Given that I didn’t have to pursue these things, I stopped them and replaced them with some other pursuit.

Part of the problem was that I simply didn’t have a vision for what I actually wanted from my future (something that I will write about in detail in the future and have already brushed on here).

But even such a vision is only part of the solution. And it’s definitely not enough to overcome this uncertainty that we are all experiencing.

So, what else can we do about it?

Uncertainty is Part of the Course…

The first step is to realise that uncertainty is just a normal part of the human experience.

So, the first thing I realised was that, rather than talking about “overcoming uncertainty”, it is better to think about it as “dealing with” or, even better, “integrating uncertainty”.

Here is what I mean by this:

Last week I wrote about why we always need stories to learn and grow as human being. One of the fundamental points that I made there (and in my essay on The Way of Being) is that our experience of the world is always split into the domain of that which we know and that which we don’t know.

I won’t go into details here, because if you are interested in the details of this idea, you can just go and look them up above. But here is the core of the idea:

• The Universe is Infinite

• We are limited

• This means, we can NEVER comprehend EVERYTHING

• So: There are always things that we cannot comprehend

There will always be uncertainty…

But now that we have realised this, what do we do about it?

And what role does Faith play in all of this..?

…and Faith is the Compass

This sub-header sounds real whoo whoo. I know. But stick with me for a bit 😉

What I realised after going through many failures, many abandoned projects, and many rejections, was that Faith is not some delusional belief that religious people have.

It’s a way of showing up in the world.

It’s a way of showing up with hope, in the face of uncertainty.

Not without uncertainty… But precisely in spite of it.

Faith is the process of showing up in the world by trying to do what is Good. And trusting that, if you do your part right, everything else will fall in place as it should.

So…

What does that mean in detail?

Faith is the acceptance of your eternal ignorance… of the fact that the unknown and the uncertain will always be part of life.

Faith is the act of acting despite this uncertainty.

Faith is committing to climb the staircase – because it feels like the right thing to do – despite not knowing exactly where it leads or how high up it might go…

Faith is recognising that your perspective is necessarily limited and yet powerful.

Faith is the recognition that your perspective – your experience – is all you have…

And that it shapes how you see the world…

Some Quantum Physics

I have talked in Why You WIll Always Need Stories about the fact that life is split into the domains of what you know and what you don’t know. And that part of faith is the acceptance of the necessary uncertainty that arises from this distinction.

But there is more…

It is not only that there is stuff that you know and stuff that you don’t know…

It’s that the exact combination of what you know and what you don’t know is shaping how the world present itself to you. Or, in other words: Your perspective shapes the world.

This is not just some nice philosophizing or mental masturbation. We actually know this from quantum physics.

There is this concept called Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle.

Basically what it says is that you can either know

1. Where an object is or

2. Where it is going.

Imagine a photograph of a football that was taken with a high-speed camera. Just by looking at the photograph you can tell exactly where the ball is, but you cannot say in which direction it travels.

Now imagine that the same image was taken, but with a regular camera. The ball is a bit blurry. It’s elongated because in the time in which the photo was taken, it moved. On the image, you can therefore see in which direction the ball moves, but you don’t know exactly where the ball is on the picture (because it moved while the picture was taken). It’s not just in one place.

But the kicker in the real uncertainty principle is not that you can only know the location or movement of an object, but why you can only see one of those…

The crazy thing is that, when you observe something (e.g., think of a quantum football), you actually change the energy of that very object… Just by measuring where the quantum ball is going, you slightly nudge it off its original axis. And because the ball was in movement before you observe it, you can never fully know its original and proper movement. Only the one after you observed it…

What we can learn from this is the following: The role of the observer – your role as an observer – plays a crucial role in how you see the world. The way you look at it – observe it – actually influences what you see (and maybe even what is there).

This is crucial because you are not only an observer, you are also an actor. And what you see influences what you do.

So to put everything together, we can conclude the following thing:

You observe the world.

Your observation – your perspective – is necessary limited.

So, there is much that you don’t know.

This limited perspective is shaping how you see the world.

And what you see in the world is shaping how you act in the world.

Put more simply: Your ignorance is determining your actions.

That’s all nice you say! But what can we actually do with this? Why is this relevant for my daily life?

Here’s why…

Choosing The Right Perspective

We just established that

• You are an observer

• That your observation/perspective is limited

• That your limited perspective is shaping how you act in the world.

So, what we can naturally derive from this is this:

In order to go properly through life – to find a good way of dealing with the unlimited uncertainty that comes from the fact that there is always the domain of the unknown – we need to find a perspective that effectively influences how we deal with the fact that we have a limited perspective.

Put more simply: We need a meta-perspective…

This is what Faith is.

Faith is the realisation that you see the world through a tiny window. That there are always things that you don’t know. That, no matter how much you learn, you will always be ignorant.

Faith is realising all of this, and still acting with the conviction that everything will be going well, if you do what must be done.

And the kicker is…

You are already doing this!

Take this example: There is a non-zero chance that you could have a stroke in the next minute and die. Yet, you are not constantly thinking about it. The only reason you are thinking about it is because I brought it up.

The same holds true for all sort of unexpected events that could happen:

• The stock market could crash

• Someone you love could suddenly die

• You could lose your job without it being your fault

These are just some examples. And all of them are actually quite likely to happen in your lifetime. But that’s the key word: Likely.

You don’t know…

And so, you don’t spent that much time thinking about it (although when you do, then usually negatively).

Now, Faith is recognising and accepting that these (and other negative things) could happen, and yet work on showing up as your best Self everyday.

It is this what some philosophers called “The Absurd”… And it is this that makes it so difficult for people to understand and embody faith.

(I’m not saying that I fully understand or embody it. But I have my glimpses from time to time)

It is indeed the Absurdity of knowing that bad things will happen, and yet approach every day aiming at the highest possible Good.

Because:

When there is certainty of bad things happening and you are just uncertain when they will happen, shouldn’t the same apply for Good things to happen?

Faith is to answer this question with “Yes!”. To mean it with your entire Being. And to act accordingly…

Embodying Faith

Last week I wrote about Why You Will Always Need Stories. One point I made there is that, when we engage with a story, it’s not about the story, but the meta-story. It’s not about the plan that the main character had. But how he dealt with it once chaos entered his life. Meta-Story is the story of how to walk the fine balance between order and chaos.

And Faith is one of these Meta-Stories.

Faith is commitment to the process of aligning yourself with reality – and trusting that the best possible good will come from that…

Faith is the belief that fundamentally, reality is on your side. And that when you get on reality’s side, and act accordingly, the best possible version of your life will unfold itself.

I have written about what I currently belief to be the nature of reality in The Way of Being and The Art of Being. So, if you haven’t checked them out yet, I would highly recommend you do so.

But even if you do that, it will only get you so far. You have to take it further…

If you really want to live the best possible life – one of hope and Faith – you will need to take your own steps. Make your own experience.

I myself had to come to the realisations here through a lot of failures.

A lot of misguided approaches to goals and life itself.

A lot of rejections (both of myself and my ideas).

When you start integrating your own failures and rejections and simultaneously look at all the things that worked out well for you, you will notice something:

Things never turn out exactly how you planned them.

I never quite reached my goals in exactly the way I planned. There is always a different path that becomes apparent on the way. Or you realise that the goal you set was actually not the right goal in the first place.

But because I learned to commit to the process of Faith – of giving my best and trying to align myself as good as possible with reality in the face of uncertainty – I always ended up in the right place. And if I manage to keep this up, I believe – I know – that I will continue to end up in the places in which I should be.

So… What can you do to do the same? How can you take your own steps. And find that sort of Faith in your life?

1. Learning About Truth and Reality

The first step is to understand what this means: Living in alignment with reality.

What is reality?

What is truth?

Why is truth relevant?

Chances are, you might not yet have really considered these questions until now. And yet, they are some of the questions that we – as humans – have tried to figure out since we started to think (and maybe even before that).

What can you do to dive deeper into this?

A couple of things:

• Make a YouTube or Google search on “What is Truth?” and click on whatever jumps into your eye.

• Look into Epistemology and Alethiology.

• Read (philosophy) about the topic

  • E.g., On Truth by Simon Blackburn could be a nice entry

• Start looking into different religions (the point here is not to become a religious believer in the traditional sense. It’s to try to get an understanding how people in different religious and spiritual traditions try to make sense of the nature of reality – often using the concept of God)

Make sure to find something that speaks to you. That you a) get excited about when engaging with and b) that opens your mind. My first steps with this were Jordan Peterson’s Biblical Lectures (and probably as preparation to that his 2017 Maps of Meaning Lectures). But this was just the preparation for other works. So, take it one step at a time… And start with what speaks to you.

While you do this, it’s important to already start to work on a mindset that fosters Faith: know that you will never fully know truth. You don’t do this to get a definite knowledge… That would just be your Left Hemisphere trying to take over. Rather, approach this as an exercise of broadening your perspective.

Commit to this process. You don’t need to rush it. It will take you a lifetime anyways 😉

2. Practise to Act in Alignment with Reality

This really boils down to one thing: Train your conscience. By learning to listen to it…

There are a number of steps that you can take to do that:

1. Start trying not to lie or say things you don’t believe to be true

2. Notice when you say things that you don’t believe to be true

3. Learn to understand why you say those things

4. Do something about it so that you don’t do this anymore

5. Develop a habit of and intuition for acting in alignment with truth

The last step will basically fall into place when you really practise steps 1-4.

If you take one thing away from this letter, let it be steps 1-4 above.

I cannot begin to tell you how they changed my life.

A huge chunk of the good things that happened to me because of my actions I attribute to my attempts to speak and act as truthfully as I can. I am of course not perfect in this. Which gets me really REALLY excited… Because it means, there is still room for me to make life for myself and the people around me even better.

And you can do the same…

3. Give Yourself Evidence

As you start implementing this in your life, notice the changes that occur

• How does the way you think change?

• How does the way you talk change?

• How do you actions change?

Notice these things. Really contemplate them. It will take some time for them to take effect. But if you really commit to the process outlined above, I promise you that you will not recognise yourself in 3 years time…

Pay especially close attention when telling the truth feels difficult.

In my experiences, this will have the biggest effects on your life…

4. Highlight the Evidence

Once you start doing this, really highlight to yourself how your alignment with what is true improved your life.

Learn to become aware of them. What was the causal chain between you speaking or acting truthfully and something good entering your life.

Here is an example from my life: When I finished my masters, I knew I wanted to do a PhD. But there wasn’t a good position available at my university, so I started working 80% as a teacher at one faculty and 20% on a different educational project at a different faculty…

The thing is, I was very open during the hiring process that I was looking for a PhD position and that I would cancel my contract as soon as I got one.

This of course felt difficult, because it meant that they might say: “Ok, then we don’t want you”.

But guess what happened: My supervisor on the educational project offered me the PhD position that I now hold. Without any application process… Just like that. Because I was honest about it during our contract negotiations… And the icing on the cake: because I did the same at my 80% teaching position, they let me go in in good will and still allow me to do some teaching over there, when they have an exciting teaching opportunity that I want to do. It was really a win-win-win!

Look out for those things in your own life. First at a small scale. Then, as you get better, at a bigger and bigger scale.

I promise you again: you won’t recognise your life!

5. Stay Humble!

One temptation that you might encounter is that, over time, so many things start falling into place for you that you think you could just do and have everything.

But there is a crucial mistake in that assumption.

The only thing you can do is to align yourself with reality. You cannot force yourself onto it, or it into something that it is not.

Your actions will only last as long as you can maintain the energy that it takes to engage in them. And if you work against reality, you will find that your energy dwindles fast…

So, just don’t fall prey to that ;)

Wrap Up

So, you know the steps:

1. Learn about Truth and Reality

2. Practise to Act and Learn in Alignment with Reality

3. Give Yourself Evidence

4. Highlight the Evidence

5. Stay Humble!

You know why you should do that…

Because it’s the one thing that you can do to ensure that your life unfolds as it should. With so much Good in it that you have more than enough and can start sharing it with others.

That’s what it’s all about in the end… no?

So, I have given you all I’ve got…

Now go and do!

Much success with it!

All the best,
Niklas