The importance of our belief systems

This week, JOE's life coach John McNamara talks about the influence our beliefs have in our lives and stresses the importance of accentuating positive beliefs to ensure personal progress.

 

A belief is a strong emotional state of certainty that you hold about specific people, things, ideas or experiences of life. We all have a whole raft of beliefs that we have acquired along our journey this far in life. We are born with a clean slate so everything you now believe about yourself and the world around you has been acquired along the way, and man have we gathered some baggage.

So where exactly have our beliefs come from? Primarily from the following:

Our environment

Past experiences

Our parents

Education

Creative Thinking

When we are born we have no pre-conceptions about our potential, other nationalities or races, the economy; the list goes on and on. We are usually completely oblivious to the process of forming beliefs based on the knowledge and information we are being fed and the experiences we experience and see around us. Some are damaging and others act as a massive catalyst for us in our lives.

Beliefs can be split into two very distinct categories.

POSITIVE BELIEFS:

These are beliefs we have about ourselves and the world that support us and are serving us well in our everyday life. For example:

I am very good at dealing with people.

I have a great ability to make money.

Mistakes offer you a great opportunity for learning and development.

NEGATIVE BELIEFS:

These do not serve us and act as an anchor for our dreams and happiness. They do not support us and prevent us from making progress in so many areas of our lives. For example:

I’m too old to run a marathon.

Nobody in my family has ever gone to University so I’m sure as hell not going to be able to.

The Government in this country make it impossible for people to start a successful business.

“Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us”

The beliefs we hold will have a direct correlation to the quality of our life and the levels of fulfillment, achievement and success we attain. Our beliefs clothe themselves in our actions, so be sure that the beliefs you currently hold are leading you in the direction you wish to be going.

The diagram below highlights this clearly. I have yet to encounter an individual who has achieved anything of significance in their lives without first having a deep felt belief that it was attainable.

THE GOOD NEWS!

The good news is that we can believe absolutely anything we want to and we can also shake ANY negative belief we currently hold. Hitler is but one example of the many that exist of how emotion mixed with repetition can lead people to believe just about anything.

Emotion and repetition will be your greatest allies if you wish to create positive beliefs for yourself in life. This is why mantras and positive affirmations work so well. Find a positive affirmation that works for you and repeat it as often as you can.

If you’re stuck in traffic or in the queue at the shops, use the time to re-enforce the beliefs you will use to help you excel. The one I use most is:

“John, you’ve got greatness in you” or “John, you’re the fuc*ing man!”

These have help me overcome fear and truly throw myself into situations where others would dare not go. Other examples would include:

“Every day, in every way, I’m getting stronger and stronger.”

“My life is a celebration of all that is great in the world.”

“Find what works for you and utilize its power.”

Now that you have an increased awareness of where and how our beliefs were formed you can start to examine the many beliefs you hold about yourself and the world around you. Ask yourself how long you have believed that, who may have influenced your opinion on that matter, could there possibly be another way to look at that, if you continue to believe that how will your life be in five years time and are there examples in the world of where this was not the case?

Remember that you can strengthen any positive belief you hold and rid yourself of ANY negative belief. Make the decision and in your best Victor Meldrew voice say:

“I don’t belieeeeeeve it!”

If it’s not serving you then rid yourself of it and if it is serving you then re-enforce it. It is not possible to take you through the full process of shaking beliefs here, but personally I have gone through this process and also with a huge number of clients and it results in colossal shifts in people's psyche as well as progress in all areas of their lives.

If you would like to do some work on shifting negative beliefs and creating winning beliefs for your future then call or mail me NOW.

Until next week...

If you're interested in booking a consultation, you can call John McNamara on +353 863919952, mail [email protected], visit his website www.evolve-life.com, or connect on LinkedIn or Facebook.