The power of beliefs
What are beliefs? Well, simply put, beliefs are what you believe to be true. Does it mean they actually are true? Not at all. It just means that you believe them to be true. Here I want to focus on beliefs that we have about ourselves. There are helpful beliefs and limiting beliefs. A helpful belief is something you believe that inspires you or could help you improve the quality of your life. An example of a helpful belief is, “I am confident that if I work hard, I can create a very successful business”. A limiting belief is something that holds you back from doing something, or lowers your confidence. An example of a limiting belief someone might have about themselves is, “I am not smart enough to create a successful business”.
It’s interesting that with either of those beliefs, the person does not really know if the belief is accurate. In other words, the person wouldn’t really know whether they actually could create a successful business. They really would just be guessing based on other beliefs they have.
What’s the purpose of having any belief that would hold you back? They are designed to protect you. For example, if you stood at the top of a tall building, it would be a good idea to have the belief that if you decided to jump off the building and land on the road, then you would be too weak to survive. If you believed that you wouldn’t be hurt at all from jumping, then you might decide to jump because it would be fun floating through the air. Even having a belief that you are not smart enough to create a successful business is designed to protect you. Creating a business takes a lot of time, energy, and often money. This belief is to protect you from losing those resources.
The problem is that in reality, some of our beliefs are harming us, even though they are all designed to help us. A lot of our negative beliefs are trying to protect us from the fear of failure. They are what cause us to not put our best efforts in. If you believe you will fail, you likely won’t even try. People often make a lot less money than they deserve because they believe that they are not worth any more. They would be afraid to ask their boss for a raise because they think the boss will certainly say no. Often these people really have no idea what the boss would do and are simply guessing. What about people who believe they aren’t attractive enough, successful enough, or interesting enough to date someone they really like. They often won’t ask and will never know.
Take a moment to write down 3 beliefs you have about yourself that you feel are limiting your life in some way. Think of things like, “I’m not smart enough to…” “I’m too old to…” “I’m too young to…” “I don’t have enough experience to…”. Recognizing and identifying these beliefs is the first step to changing them.
I will be writing more on beliefs very soon and how to control them to make a positive difference in our lives.
Please share your thoughts.
Andrew
Self Improvement
June 4th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
也不知道用英语说可不可以让人家明白 所以先用中文说一遍.
你的网站好棒. 我会经常来的. 能实现自己的梦想真是很美好的事情. 祝你成功和快乐.
Wish you happy~ (结果到最后只剩这句话…)
June 8th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Belief， a creation of human’s wise ， always plays an important role in human’s society. As a saying goes：“ If one’s mind is full， it won’t be filled in any bad idea.” Anyone who has strong beliefs can enjoy a colorful life. Otherwise， he will lose himself in his way of life.
Beliefs are so important that it can change one’s fate. Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out.
Obviously， the latter mouse is the one who has his own beliefs. There are always hopes in his eyes that encourage him to fight， and fight， and fight. He never gives up when he is in some difficulty situations. Because the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty， while the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The first mouse is one of these kinds of pessimists. He holds no belief in his life and become the slave of his fate.
Thus， it can be seen that one with firm beliefs is likely to get successful and master his own life.
June 9th, 2007 at 1:26 am
Hey ya.
It’s a very interesting topic since I’m not one of those guys who are very self-confident.
I promisse I’ll try to find out what are my limiting beliefs. But I suposse I already know.
By the way, there’s no such a word like “belief” in spanish. Well, there are some but they don’t fit exactly the meaning you give.
Keep up the good job, guys. I do appreciate it.
Ps. Very motivating what Kena said.
July 7th, 2007 at 1:31 am
It’s very interesting that limiting beliefs are designed to protect you.
New point of view to me.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:00 am
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August 23rd, 2007 at 4:10 am
It’s also pretty intersting for me that limiting beliefs are created for protecting ourselves. Every thought in our mind have its reason to exist,so when some negative thoughts appear,we not only need to make it clare that those are bad for ue ,but know why we have such ones. Maybe by doing we get the ways to break through.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hi Andrew,
I am trying to talk about beliefs here. I believe that beliefs are built up on what we have experienced before. Some may believe if they work hard in some ways, finally they will get successful. What that means is when they are working something hard, in the course they can learn something true or false. This could teach them to decide which right road they should choose. Take an example of Warren Buffet. When everyone around the world is not optimistic about bonds, he is brave enough to buy much in, mainly because of his rich experience and enough assessment of risks telling him that the dropped level would be most likely to hit the bottom. Any comments from media as well as advices from others would only be a reference for him to search out what is worth to buy in. It is actually a kind of contrary to popular beliefs. So he can be successful to earn so much money in his life.
If we are lack of belief in something that we should do, it means we may have not enough experience and braveness to do it. I think we should try our best to find out the right ways and accumulate more experience for the future attempts. Eventually, limiting beliefs will turn helpful ones.