Websters definition of a belief: A state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing. Our personal beliefs, both powering and dis-empowering, are based on our personal references or life experiences.  All throughout our lives, we experience first hand, many things that our subconscious files away for later reference.  The problem is we do not control “what” is referenced because we may not be aware of or even in control of “what”.  We go through life experiencing hap-hazard references that may not be how we intended them to be interpreted.  All these little references begin to build one large belief and we hope it will empower us.  These types of references are know as first-hand because you experience them yourself.

A second type of reference that adds to a “belief” are second-hand references.  These you may get from reading books, surfing the web, watching TV, or listening to friends.  Once again if we are not careful we can pick up negative references from outside sources that can lead to dis-empowering beliefs.  In the book, “Choices and Illusions: How did I get where I am, and how do I get where I want to be?” by Eldon Taylor, he tells a story about a female Eagle named Nina who as a chick fell from her nest and wandered into a chicken coupe.  She was adopted by an older Hen and learned the ways of the chickens.  She learned how to scratch the earth, dig for grubs and be a good overall chicken.    Through second-hand references she believed she was a chicken even though she did not “feel” like one.  She often wondered why she could not lay eggs and all the other hens consoled her and told her, “in time Nina your body will catch up, you just needed to try harder; after all your biological mother failed you and didn’t teach you how to be a chicken”, and “that it wasn’t her fault”.  So overtime she developed many references that created a deep belief that she was a chicken and she went through life not knowing her true potential she possessed as an Eagle.  One day a male eagle spotted Nina and descended on the chicken yard and cornered Nina.  Trapped by the male eagle, Nina crouched down in fear, almost paralyzed by her expectation.  The male eagle asked “What are you doing here? Your an Eagle, you should be soaring through the sky on great adventures, not nesting with chickens.”  Nina being a smart “chicken” had an idea and said to the eagle, “If I am an Eagle that can soar through the sky, and do amazing things, then you’re not going to hurt me?”.  ”No” said the male Eagle, “of course not – what nonsense is that?”.  ”Well, then,” Nina confidently added, “show me. Step aside so I could leave if I choose to.”  The male Eagle stepped aside and Nina seized the opportunity and made best of her plan and ran straight for the chicken house.  Once inside she told the chickens how she outsmarted the dumb old Eagle.  They all laughed and rewarded her with chicken appreciation, “You’re such a smart chicken Nina!”  You have probably figured out the point of the story that second-hand references can be very dangerous and dis-empowering when enough of them create a great belief.

The third type of reference are imagined-references.  These references do not actually happen, they are created in your mind through your thoughts.  Since you sub-conscious mind cannot distinguish between imaginary and reality, if you think something enough it can start to become true as a reference.  In his book “The winning mind set” by Kevin Seaman, he makes reference to Roger Bannister who was the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes.  At the time many deemed it impossible, but Roger Bannister used imagined-references to help achieve his goal.  He would put a piece of paper in his running shoes with 3:58 written on it.  Since he had zero first-hand references to his goal, since he had never done it, and since no one else had ever done it, he had zero second-hand references.  He was left with his imagination, and once again our subconscious mind does not know the difference between real or imagined, he started to build up enough references that he “knew” he could beat the record.  He pursued his goal in small bites by shaving seconds of the clock on each run.  He would tell himself, “If I can run the mile in 3 minutes 59 seconds, I know I can do it in 3 minutes 58 seconds, after all its only one second.”  You can see the power of imagined-references and how your imagination can aid in building your belief system.

Next, lets talk about how to control, change, and create the belief system that will help achieve your goals, rather than hinder them.  Tony Robbins compares beliefs to a table.  A table without legs is basically a piece of wood on the floor and is the equivalent of an opinion.  If you add legs to it, it becomes a useful, sturdy piece of furniture and thus a belief.  Think of your beliefs as the top of the table and all your references as the table legs.  The more references you have, the more legs your table has, thus making it more sturdy and harder to collapse.  Since our beliefs can be powering or dis-empowering, when they have many “legs” they become unwavering and this can be bad news for negative beliefs that we would like to change.  Luckily there is a way, that is simple to comprehend, but it will take some work to succeed.

Here are the steps to changing you belief system to align with achieving your goals.

1. Become aware of your belief system. You need to figure out what beliefs are hindering yourself first.  This may sound obvious but many beliefs go unnoticed or can be conflicting in nature.  This will almost always sabotage your goals.  If you have ever attempted to achieve a goal and given up on it, you need to go back and think about “why”.  Ask yourself why you gave up on it.  Was it too hard?  Did you think you weren’t good enough?  Imagine yourself at the very moment you gave up and recall what you said to yourself.  What dialogue did you use that triggered the give up mentality.  The answer you uncover is the negative belief that you must demolish in order to change for the better.
2. Start to challenge the references to the belief. Do you find yourself saying “I can’t!”, or “I’m not good enough; tall enough; strong enough; fast enough; etc?”, or “That doesn’t happen to people like me.”?  These are references to an overall dis-belief in yourself.  It’s time to challenge those reference.  By asking questions about each reference and then writing your answer down, you will create skepticism in that reference.  For example, ask the question, “What part of this action can’t I do and why?  Is it really the whole action I can’t do or just a specific part?  Is it the unfamiliar that is scaring me?”  As you keep asking these types of questions the truth will soon surface and pinpoint the truth to the negative references.  Once the pinpoint has been made, often it ends up being very minuscule and very manageable.  The key is to wheedle it down to its smallest part.
3. Find the bright spots and give them power. Determine if there are any empowering first or second-hand references and reinforce them.  (I use the term “bright spots” quite often because of the extremely positive visual it paints in my head.)  Reinforcement is done by also asking the right questions and writing them down.  Asking such questions as, “Have I ever accomplished something similar before, and if yes, how did I handle it?”, or, “What was my most amazing accomplishment, and how did I go about doing it?”.  People tend to focus more on the negatives in life rather than the positives.  This forces you to think about the positives and with practice will get easier.
4. Imagine the results of giving in to dis-empowering beliefs. This step will take some forward thinking by imagining what you will feel like if you decide to give in to you negative beliefs.  Close your eyes and really focus on what you will look like, how you will feel, and what you will think about yourself if you give in to you negative self.  A majority of people do not forward think about their lives as negative, because it is painful.  We leave it up to chance and hope our lives will be enjoyable.  For the most part it is, but everyone has at least one dream that if isn’t accomplished creates pain.  It’s called the “shoulda, woulda, coulda’s” and everyone has at least one.  The forward thinking will create pain, hopefully enough pain that it will force yourself to take action, to confront your fears and push through to victory.
5. Visualize success in your future. Since your subconscious cannot distinguish between imagination and reality, visualize major success by pushing your imagined self closer and closer to victory.  Since we know that first hand references (our experiences) support our beliefs, which dictate our view of what we can effectively do, and the results of what we do create more personal first-hand references, wouldn’t it make sense to “think” about “doing” and “achieving” more “results” to create imagined-references.  After all imagined-references create table legs too.

There you go, a five step process to changing your hindering beliefs.  Once again these are simple methods, but they are not effective without work and action.  Without action, you only have knowledge, and knowledge without action results in everything staying the same.  So get up, get a pen, and sit down in a comfy chair and get to work, and you will thank me.