I’ve been doing some deep work on confidence for myself and there were two references to different percentages that stood out to me.  I mentioned yesterday about the little bit of faith that things will unfold as they are meant to and I came across a quote from Michael Todd talking about only needing 51% faith to move forward.  There is no way for us to know every single thing that will happen in every moment of our lives.  We need to be content to make decisions with the information and experiences we have.  Sometimes it seems crazy to move forward knowing nothing other than we think it will work, but Todd suggests that all we need is enough belief to take that step.  51% faith is still the majority percentage on the belief that we will be taken care of, prayers answered, and have the ability to solve our problems. 

As I think over my life, I’m sorry for so many of the decisions I made when I didn’t have enough faith that I would be able to make it through or that I would be cared for. I regret a lot of those decisions mainly for the loss of what could have been had I done the other thing.  I’m sorry that I didn’t see enough signs in the world to trust that there was something there to pick me up if I fell when I went for it—so I sat on the sidelines.  I’m sorry that I didn’t feel secure enough in who I am that I was worth help, forgiveness, and that I didn’t have to know it all to be worthy of anything.  I had spent so much time in survival and figuring it out on my own that I really didn’t even consider faith an option. I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious setting but I did go to church with my grandmother and while many of the lessons focused on love, it was also a proving/punitive thing.  You do anything out of line or in the vein of being a human and we must seek repentance.  The relationship I had with faith wasn’t healthy.  I’m learning to lean in more and to try and trust again. 

The other percentage I want to talk about is 10%.  In the middle of hearing about this concept of only needing 51% faith to move forward, I came across Jess Eckstrom and her percentage.  She discussed how it isn’t our job to be the expert in everything in our fields.  We aren’t meant to be lightyears ahead of people so they think we are an authority on it.  She says the secret is to be 10% ahead.  If we give ourselves that little edge, we find we have answers waiting for us already and we can still give guidance.  The reason this number stood out to me is because I’ve often equated my worth to what I know.  I thought I had to know EVERYTHING about everything in order to be respected.  This concept of 10% is enough to keep us moving, not from a place of power, but from a place of understanding and learning what’s next.  10% is enough to get us started.  Coupled with 51% faith that we can get through, and those odds are starting to swing in our favor if we muster enough belief in ourselves to give ourselves the edge.  The point is that we don’t need to overwhelm ourselves with perfection.  We just need to give ourselves a little boost.  Any one of us can do that. So what are we waiting for?  Find that faith to get to 10% and move forward.