01 Oct Your beliefs are stopping you from being your best!
What are beliefs?
Beliefs define how you see the world and act within it. A belief is a feeling of certainty about what something means. Beliefs lead to thoughts, that ultimately lead to actions, and/or the fulfilling of one’s goals.
Where do they come from?
The challenge is that most of our beliefs are generalisations about our past. “Don’t swim after you’ve eaten, you’ll get a stitch”. Our interpretation of those past experiences may have been pleasurable or painful.
Our beliefs come in many shapes and sizes, from the trivial to the easily verified, – “I believe it will rain today” – to profound leaps of faith – “I believe in God”. Taken together, they form a personal guidebook telling us not just what is factually correct, but also what is right and good, and hence how to behave toward one another and the natural world. This makes them arguably the most important guide we have for our actions.
How do your beliefs affect you?
Often, we are not conscious of our beliefs (non-conscious), and how those beliefs affect our actions. As a coach, I often asked people why they do certain things, and the common response is, “I don’t know, I’ve always done it that way”.
- Limiting beliefs often cause us to miss out on the things that we want most, for example, we may believe we are not good at exercising, so we lose our opportunity to be fit and healthy.
- Empowering beliefs can drive you towards the life you want to live. You might for example regard exercise as a challenge that you are willing to take on, and embrace the idea of getting yourself out there for a run.
What is a goal that you have always wanted to achieve and haven’t? Why haven’t you? Whatever your reason, there’s always a limiting belief.
How do we change our beliefs?
- The first step in replacing old limiting beliefs with new positive empowering beliefs, is to understand that your beliefs come from your:
- experiences,
- knowledge, and
I tell my clients to continuously ask themselves, “Am I doing this right now, should I be?” Believe it or not, many of the most important things we hold to be true are not the product of fact or reason. We have just held on to these beliefs as old habits, without questioning them.
To question why you’re doing what you’re doing, is a way of taking non-conscious behaviour to the conscious. This is significant because only 10% of our behaviour is conscious. That means 90% of what we do, we don’t think about!
Take charge of your beliefs.
I encourage you to challenge your beliefs and assumptions, to determine which of your beliefs are limiting you from being your best. Then you will be ready to form new and positive empowering beliefs, to enable you to achieve your goals…and to flourish.