Belief Series

1. Beliefs Hold the Key
2. Own Your Beliefs!
3. To Be Successful, Have Successful Beliefs

Table of Contents

• How Do YOU Form Beliefs?
• "You Are WRONG!"
• Validate Your Belief. Own it!
• Further Questions

“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” ~ James Joyce

How Do YOU Form Beliefs?

Some people form beliefs quickly. Some will accept the word of others based on their merit or their relationship with the person. Some will read books and instantly subscribe to the teachings and later regurgitate them to anyone willing to listen. Others will listen to TV ‘experts’, and accept what was said as fact. How many health practices, fitness plans, or diets have been declared the best thing EVER, than later debunked as unhealthy or harmful?

Eleanor Roosevelt recommended learning from other’s mistakes… because you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. This is the same thing as recommending that you should form life beliefs from the experiences of others. Eleanor seemed to be a smart gal, and this sounds wise to me, so I’m going to take it as good advice.

Think about the beliefs you hold true which were received outside of your own self. I’m assuming this is most of them right?

What has helped define your beliefs for healthy living? Did you have to dabble with drugs before realizing their harm, or did cousin Jonny have to become an addict first, and you noticed what drugs can do to a life?

Where do your fears come from? Are you scared of sharks because you saw the movie Jaws (I, II, III, IV…) too early as a kid? Do you fear dogs because your sister was attacked by one?

Do you believe a life-long relationship is impossible because your parents divorced? Do you believe marriage is even necessary these days considering the failure rate?

You have your own system of beliefs for a reason, and they make you who you are. Hopefully, there has come or will come a time in your life when it’s time to discover why you have each belief. Answer this, and know thyself.

"You Are WRONG!"

What happens when a belief is challenged? Your defenses go up! The bigger the belief, the bigger the defenses.

Better yet, what happens when your belief is proven to be wrong?! It feels as if your entire reality is shaken right? You can hear glass shattering in the background, fingernails rasping down a chalkboard, and an electric shock to your brain that makes your eyes pop. And before you know it someone else is trying to convince you that islands don’t float! (Wait… they don’t?)

Think about it. If I told you at this moment, humans can actually fly without assistance, and we are in the midst of huge breakthrough, what would your reaction be? Probably something similar to “Pffft! Ya right! Don’t be stupid!”. But let’s just assume, that next week I fly in front of your bedroom window and ask what’s for dinner, what would happen? Jaw droppin’, mind blowin’, reality shaking incident, no? Perhaps some of you would just fall over because your mind locked up and needed a reboot.

As soon as the initial ‘shock’ subsides, you may bounce back, rationalize the new input and establish a new belief based on this new information and move forward. Right? (The impact and duration of the ‘shock’ is usually dependent on how deeply seated the belief is – and I’m sure seeing me fly would cause quite the ‘shock’ from challenging dozens of your beliefs.)

The point is, most of our beliefs are not based on facts, rather, they are based on feelings, experiences, opinions, and faith. This is one reason why debating about politics or religion can get so intense and heated because we challenge each other’s very deep beliefs where a ‘right answer’ is not available or easily seen. They are developed from experience, and who is to say the other is wrong?

It is paramount to understand that everyone feels their beliefs are valid and have developed them for specific reasons. Understand that beliefs form an individual, and attacking their beliefs is an attack on one’s being. Be gentle or be silent. (In short – be nice or shut up!)

Validate Your Belief. Own it!

Our beliefs are formed, adopted, and changed daily. Most of us don’t consider the effect these beliefs have on our entire life experience.

Today’s main objective is not to have you questioning or doubting your beliefs. Rather, to recognize the beliefs you hold, and encourage you to uncover why you hold these beliefs, validate them, and truly own them. And lastly, to hand you a shovel to help dig up the ones that are harming you from living a more successful, happy and empowering life.

These are the types of questions you should ask yourself when you truly want to own your beliefs and to expand your personal awareness.

Establishing new beliefs is not always a conscious effort and some really big ones are developed as a child. Recognizing and upgrading our beliefs is a must. Being conscious of our current beliefs and the new ones we create takes one small, but not easy step: an effort to consciously process lessons to be learned from every experience that causes you to stretch (causes discomfort), in any area of your life.

Understand your beliefs, and understand YOU!

Further Questions

Here are some other questions to consider:

• Is this belief benefiting my overall well-being, success, and happiness?
• Is this belief holding me back or pushing me forward?
• What experiences have I had to verify this belief?
• When did this belief originate? Why did I start telling myself this?
• Would this belief be the same if I were living in another country?
• Would this belief be the same if I had different parents?