Begin at the End

In today's episode I begin to dig deep into belief systems. Before you set out on any course, in addition to resilience, you must build a strong belief system. Belief systems are very powerful and they are either limiting or enabling. In Tony Robbins will often refer to them as empowering or disempowering.

A limiting belief system is simply one that puts limitations on various aspects of your life. They are a conditioned response to referenced experiences in your life. For instance, growing up you may noticed that one of your parents worked incredibly hard but yet were unable to truly find success or live their dreams. No matter how hard they worked they could never seem to get ahead. This may lead one to grow up with the belief system that no matter how hard they work, they will never be able to have it all. They witness it in their very own parents. We all know this to be untrue, but remember that everyone has a different truth. Someone may grow up in poor and impoverished circumstances. They may see people try to better themselves but fall short. This may lead them to have the disempowering belief that they are a product of their circumstances and their environment. Belief systems can come from anything we experience, the news, our environment, anything around us. The more we see the same patterns, the more we solidify the belief. They can even come from our own imagination. It has been proven that thought patterns repeated consistently can lead to physiological changes. Top athletic performers use this premise to constantly visualize themselves in action. Rehearsing the game in their head has been proven to show marked improvements in physical performance. The very same way, negative thought patterns can become embedded in our subconscious and form extremely powerful beliefs.

On the other end we have empowering beliefs. These are beliefs such as, we control our destiny, or we can achieve whatever we want as long as we put in the work. One thing that is extremely important to remember is that things in our lives only have the meaning that we give to them. Likewise there are no situations that cause us pain in our lives, it is our reaction to the situations and how we interpret them. People with empowering beliefs tend to be very optimistic. They also tend to have different references that have built their belief systems. The same person who grew up in impoverished circumstances may look at someone on the outside world who was once in the same position as them. They may find someone who grew up impoverished and ended up becoming a massively successful person. This could build the empowering belief that no matter what their situation they can accomplish anything they want if the try hard enough.

Believing is one of the keys to success. you have to believe you can get there before you even take off. The whole idea is to learn to eradicate the disempowering beliefs from your life and reinforce the empowering beliefs that you have. I have found a simple process that has worked for myself and while the steps in themselves are easy to understand and digest, the actual practice takes a bit of digging and soul searching.

1. IDENTIFY: Take a moment right now to write down some limiting beliefs you may have. They might be things such as, I can't build my business because I don't have the money, or I am not smart enough, or don't have the right degree to get the job I want. These are all disempowering beliefs. For some this step might be easy, others may have to search deep inside for things that may be holding them back. Take the time and make sure you put these things on paper. Writing things down is a powerful tool, it helps to put things into perspective and gives you a clear picture of what the situation is.
2. INVALIDATE: The second step is to invalidate the belief. All beliefs have a foundation, you must crack them. If a belief stems from a referenced experience, we must find new references. The easiest way I have found to do this is through other people. Take a look around, look at someone who is doing what you want to do, someone that is living your dream. Read about their story, chances are their story alone could debunk your disempowering belief. Many people had rough beginnings and multiple failures before they got to where they were. The road to success is never easy. The more you search, the more references you will begin to find that contradict your limiting beliefs.
3. REINFORCE: Reinforce the new ideas you are finding through positive thinking. Your mindset just like a muscle can be trained. Learn to turn off the negative noise. Once a negative thought process begins learn to identify it and bring your focus back to things that are positive. You may have a positive thought that you revert back to frequently- good! Keep doing it! Humans are wired to focus on negativity as a defense mechanism. Our ancest...