Change Dynamics

In my previous post I made the point that you choose your beliefs and when your beliefs no longer serve you you can change them. The bad news is that to do so is easier said than done. The good news is that there is more than one way to change beliefs.  So here is a variety of means:

1) Take contrary action. If as assigned in my proevious post you made a list of limiting beliefs you can start to dismantle thoses beliefs by taking actions that you would take if the belief were not true. For example, say you have the belief “there’s not enough to go around.” First decide what would you do differently if you knew as an absolute fact the that belief was not true, that in fact, there is more than anough to go around. Or if you believed, “I’m too old to start a business” what if you knew that “I’m the right age to start a business.” What would you do?

Be for I say just do it, let me first say, you know that there’s not way to know with absolute certain that this contrary belief is right, right?

But to be fair, you also have to admit that you can’t know with absolute certainty that your original limiting belief was true either. So what I’m suggesting is really just an experiement.

What is that contrary action? Take it. Do it wholeheartedly. and watch what happens.

2) Find the proof. Remember that we choose or beliefs based on evidence– primarily evidence of what we observe and what we recieve second hand from others. But it is just as true that we find the evidence we are looking for based on what we believe.

So if taking contrary action is too scary try this instead. Pretend, imagine or just think what it would be like is you believe the opposite of youor limiting beliefs. For example you used to believe, “It’s not spiritual to have too much money.”,  Now imagine , pretend, or just think about what it would be like to believe that  wealth is a sign of great spirituality.

Find proof for that new belief. There is evidence for that new belief all aound you. Find it.

3) Mental reprogramming. Hypnosis, self-hypnosis, NLP. EFT and a number of other techniques provide means of reporgamming beliefs on a  subconscious level. I’ll write more about hese in future posts, or look through many of the resource on these pages.

What are your deep-seated beliefs about your self yourself and about success? What are the positive and negative expectation you have of yourself. What are the limits you place on yourself?

For example if you decide to be the top sales person in your group, or earn a specific income level do you find it easy or is there a “little voice” inside you that whispers: “No, you’re just wasting your time, you’ll never make it….”?

Those whispers are limitations you have imposed upon yourself.

Those are limiting beliefs, and all like all beliefs they were learned. Like all beliefs they may or may not be true. So far so good, most people agree so far.

Now consider this: like all beliefs, those belief were chosen by you.

“Wait, a second, you can’t just chose your beliefs. You can’t just choose to believe the sky is green, or that the world is flat.”

Yes you can. Granted some of those choices will be harder to support than others, and for some beliefs there’s no pay off, but the fact is, you chose your beliefs based on the evidence you had at the time you chose them. And that’s the rub; you can’t just chose to change your belief and then it happens. All beliefs are chosen on the basis of evidence. Sometimes it’s the evidence of personal observation, but more frequently it the evidence of someone in authority or with credibility telling us.

When there is contradictory evidence we generally choose to believe the earliest source, or the source to which we have the greatest emotional attachment. That’s why some closely held beliefs persist even after being presented with contrary evidence.

Take for example the belief in Santa Claus. Most children come to believe that Santa Claus is a fictitious person by a process. First the doubt in Santa is aroused, typically followed by denial. If our parents told us there was a Santa Claus that’s a hard source of evidence to refute. It’s only as contrary evidence mounts, and often only after the parent acknowledges the fact, the child comes to realize there is no Santa Claus.

Consider beliefs that limit success. Here are some typical ones:

“You can’t be successful with out compromising your family/ethics/morals”

“I’m too __________” (Fill in the blank: old, young, fat, short, uneducated, shy, etc.)

“There’s not enough to go around”

“Rich people are greedy”

“Money is the root of all evil”

“People without a lot of money are happier/ more spiritual/our type of people.”

“Don’t try to be better than others”

There are hundreds more. The important thing is to recognize what are your limiting beliefs.

So here’s you assignment:

Spend some time identifying limiting beliefs, write them out. Set aside some time and just write out as many beliefs that limit success that you can think of. Some you might have just hear, but think, “I don’t believe that.” That’s fine, write it down any way. In my next post I’ll say more about what to do with that list.