The Fortitude Chronicle: A Weekly Digest of Athletic Determination

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For the Relentless Mind

Why Trust Runs Deeper Than Belief

A friend at the gym shared a story that stopped me and rewired how I think about self-confidence. It's about a tightrope walker at Niagara Falls—a man whose skill was legendary, whose balance was art, whose courage drew crowds from across the world.

After crossing the Falls multiple times, performing stunts that defied physics and reason, he turned to the mesmerized crowd with a simple question: "Do you believe I can carry someone across in this wheelbarrow?"

The crowd erupted in affirmation. Of course they believed. They'd witnessed his mastery, seen the evidence of his skill. Belief was easy when the proof was undeniable.

Then came the follow-up that turned enthusiasm into silence: "Who wants to get in?"

The distinction between belief and trust had never been clearer—or more terrifying.

Belief is a spectator sport. It's intellectual acknowledgment, mental assent based on evidence. Belief says, "I think you can do it" from a safe distance. It requires no skin in the game, no personal risk, no vulnerability. You can believe in someone's abilities while keeping your feet firmly planted on solid ground.

Trust is participation. It's surrendering control, accepting vulnerability, and backing your convictions with your life. Trust says, "I'm getting in the wheelbarrow." It transforms intellectual acceptance into embodied faith, moving you from the sidelines onto the wire.

This distinction becomes profound when you turn it inward. Most of us have plenty of self-belief but precious little self-trust. We believe we're capable of great things—we've seen evidence of our abilities, collected achievements, received validation. But when it comes to the moments that matter, we won't get in our own wheelbarrow.

Self-belief sounds like:

• "I know I could start that business"

• "I think I'd be good at that"

• "I believe I have what it takes"

Self-trust sounds like:

• "I'm quitting my job to start that business"

• "I'm doing it, regardless of the outcome"

• "I'm betting everything on who I believe I am"

The gap between the two is where most dreams go to die.

Trust requires something belief doesn't: the willingness to be wrong, to fail, to look foolish. When you trust yourself, you're not just acknowledging your capabilities—you're staking your reputation, your security, your comfort on them.

The crowd at Niagara Falls wouldn't get in the wheelbarrow because trust demands vulnerability. So does self-trust. When you truly trust yourself, you're willing to:

• Start before you feel ready

• Speak your truth knowing others might reject it

• Leave comfort zones with no guarantee of success

• Bet on your potential rather than your proven track record

This is why self-trust is rare and self-belief is common. Belief feels safe; trust feels terrifying.

Unlike belief, which can be built through observation and evidence, trust is forged through experience—specifically, experiences where you prove to yourself that you'll honor your commitments when the stakes are high.

Trust is built through:

• Small acts of integrity: Keeping promises you make to yourself, especially when no one's watching

• Courage under pressure: Acting on your values when it costs you something

• Recovery from failure: Getting back up when you fall, proving to yourself that setbacks aren't sentences

• Consistent behavior: Aligning your actions with your stated values across time and contexts

Each time you honor a commitment to yourself—especially when it's difficult—you make a deposit in the trust account.

People with high self-trust operate differently than those with mere self-belief:

They take bigger risks because they trust their ability to handle whatever comes. They're not naive about potential failures; they're confident in their capacity to adapt, learn, and recover.

They make decisions faster because they trust their judgment. They don't need perfect information or guaranteed outcomes—they trust their ability to course-correct along the way.

They experience less anxiety because trust creates internal security. When you trust yourself to handle whatever life brings, uncertainty becomes adventure rather than threat.

They recover more quickly because they trust their resilience. Setbacks become data points, not identity crises.

Want to know if you have self-belief or self-trust? Ask yourself:

• What dreams do you talk about but never pursue?

• What goals do you set but don't act on?

• When have you played it safe despite "believing" in yourself?

• What wheelbarrows are you unwilling to get into?

The gap between your stated beliefs about yourself and your actual behavior reveals the trust deficit.

The most powerful part of the tightrope walker story is often overlooked: eventually, someone did get in the wheelbarrow. Usually, it was the performer's manager—someone whose trust had been built through relationship, through witnessing not just public performances but private preparation, through understanding the depth of skill beneath the spectacle.

The lesson: Self-trust isn't built through grand gestures but through daily evidence of your own reliability. Every time you do what you say you'll do—especially the small, unwitnessed commitments—you're building the foundation for trust that will hold when the stakes are highest.

Belief can be borrowed, influenced, or manufactured. You can believe in yourself because others do, because society tells you to, because positive thinking gurus insist you should.

Trust cannot be faked or borrowed—it must be earned, especially from yourself. It's built through evidence that only you can provide, through choices that only you can make, through commitments that only you can keep.

The most successful people aren't those with the strongest self-belief—they're those with the deepest self-trust. They've proven to themselves, through countless small acts of courage and integrity, that they can be counted on when it matters most.

They've built a relationship with themselves based not on hope but on evidence, not on positive thinking but on positive action, not on believing they can but on trusting they will.

The crowd will always believe in you from a safe distance. But the life you're meant to live—the dreams worth pursuing, the risks worth taking, the person you're capable of becoming—that requires getting in the wheelbarrow.

The question isn't whether you believe you can make it across. The question is whether you trust yourself enough to step in and let go.

Because in the end, the wire is waiting, the wind is blowing, and the crowd's belief means nothing if you won't trust yourself with your own life.

Get in the wheelbarrow.

Two Quotes

1. "You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits. The water doesn't care about your fears, your doubts, or your excuses—it only responds to your preparation and your will to push through when your lungs are burning and every muscle screams to stop."- Michael Phelps

2. "You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sports teaches you that. But more than that, it teaches you that your body will quit a thousand times before your mind does—and champions are simply those who've learned to ignore their body's lies about what's possible."- Haile Gebrselassie

Three Posts

To Building Fortitude.

 Best Regards,

Colin Jonov, Founder & CEO Athletic Fortitude