Beliefs

Our beliefs are fueled by a generalization about our past based on our interpretations of painful or pleasurable experiences. 

1. Most people don't consciously decide what to believe

2. Often our beliefs are based on misinterpretations of past experiences 

3. Once we adopt a belief, we forget its simply our interpretation

If you are unfamiliar with Victor Frankl do a quick google search. He is a survivor of Aushcwitz. He and his survivors were found to have one thing in common. They found and empowering meaning from the pain they endured. 

Optimists know that the past doesn't equal the future. 

You can think of your beliefs like a chair with four legs. The seat itself is the belief. The four legs are your interpretations or experiences that support the belief. If you create doubt on the interpretations the chair will become structurally unstable and eventually fall to the ground. 

Often times people believe they cannot do something because of their past. They may say things such as, "I am just being realistic." The truth is these statements are just the legs of the chair based on fear or the pain from past experiences. 

When people experience enough failure they begin to develop a destructive mindset which can create a learned helplessness. It would surprise you how few experiences may generate these results. 

If you want to change a belief, you must associate massive amounts of pain with the behavior, thought or action. What does it cost to maintain this belief in the past, present and future? 

The opposite is also true. If you affiliate a massive amount of pleasure with the new empowering belief you will subconsciously seek it. 

With enough pain you can virtually change anything. Create the doubt on current disempowering beliefs and the chair will start to fall. If you question anything enough, eventually you will begin to doubt it. 

It is very dangerous if we are not willing to consider that our disempowering beliefs are inaccurate and we trap ourselves. 

For example, if you want to stop drug abuse or make it painful, go to your friends funeral that overdosed and envision you in their place. Visit a halfway house or a rehabilitation facility. 

Want to stop smoking? Go to the wing in the hospital where peoples lungs cannot produce their own oxygen so they live in an oxygen tank/tent. 

Want to stop drinking? Check out Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and read the horrific stories of parents that lost their children to people driving under the influence. 

Pain is the most powerful tool to shift a belief. 

Adopt empowering beliefs from the Role Models who you aspire to be like. 

Beliefs are what control our decisions. If we are constantly improving and expanding ourselves through personal development and experiences we can increase our level of commitment and contribution to the world. 

I'll close with an exercise. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line in the middle. On the left side title it, Empowering Beliefs. On the right side title it, Disempowering beliefs. 

Spend time to fill both sides with all your current beliefs. You want to get very detailed. 

Circle the three strongest empowering beliefs. 

Circle the two most disempowering beliefs. What are the consequences of keeping these? Decide NOW to drop these beliefs. What will they cost you physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially or in terms of your legacy?

Replace these two limiting beliefs. Find references or Role Models to help support the new powerful beliefs. What would you have to believe in order to succeed here? 

Hold yourself to a higher standard, adopt empowering beliefs and change your strategy or increase your skills. 

Change your disempowering beliefs today!!!