The Power of Belief

Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Beliefs are powerful and your life will always be a reflection of what you believe about yourself and the world you live in. This is not because belief itself is in any way magical or supernatural, but simply because your beliefs tend to determine how you think, speak and act on a daily basis. Consider the following examples:

• If you believe that you are someone who is easily stressed, you will find yourself becoming easily stressed, even in situations where there is nothing to get particularly stressed about. On the other hand, if you believe that you are someone who is imperturbable, you will tend to remain calm even in the most challenging of situations.

• If you believe that you are someone who has limited talent or ability in a certain area, you will avoid pursuing interests in that area, simply because you believe that such pursuits would end in failure. On the other hand, if you believe that you have the ability to succeed in whatever area you choose to commit yourself to, you won’t hesitate to commit yourself to something that interests you.

• If you believe that you are lazy, inept, shy, short-tempered, weak-willed, prone to addiction or that your personality is deficient in any other area, you will tend to “prove” your beliefs by being lazy, shy, short-tempered and so on. On the other hand, if you believe that you are productive, capable, confident, patient or that your personality is strong in any other area, you will tend to “prove” your beliefs by being productive, capable, confident, patient and so on.

I could give you literally thousands of examples of how your beliefs about yourself shape your life, but the point I want to make should already be clear: your beliefs about yourself and the world you live in are like self-fulfilling prophecies. They shape your experience of life by influencing how you conduct yourself on a daily basis, and this conduct then influences the kind of results you achieve.

The majority of beliefs you hold about yourself and the world you live in are not empirical facts, but mere opinions that you choose to accept as being true. These opinions come from all sorts of places – from statements your parents made about you during childhood, from comments teachers and friends made about you during your teenage years, from casual remarks made by work colleagues or your spouse, and so on. Many of your beliefs will also have come from yourself – you may simply have decided at some point that “I’m just lazy and there’s nothing that I can do about it”.

The origin of your beliefs is not nearly as important as your ability to understand that they are nothing more than opinions. It is important to understand this because all opinions can be changed. This means you can swap a negative belief for a positive belief and begin to see a big difference in your life.

Take a few moments to identify the major negative beliefs you have about yourself and the world which may have been holding you back from living your life at the highest possible level. Note the beliefs down for later reference. Here are some commonly held negative beliefs to get the ball rolling:

I’m lazy / shy / weak-willed / a wimp / stupid / nerdy / incapable.

I’m highly strung / argumentative / disorganised / messy / fickle.

I’m boring / accident-prone / depressed / ugly / clumsy.

The world is dangerous / ugly / evil / hard / cruel.

When you have completed your list (you can always add to your list if you become aware of other negative beliefs at a later stage) take a good look at everything you have written down and remind yourself: these are all just opinions.

Now take a clean sheet of paper and rewrite every negative belief you have identified as a positive one. In many cases this will be a simple case of identifying the opposite trait, as follows:

I’m active / confident / strong-willed / courageous / intelligent / capable.

I’m calm / diplomatic/ clear-headed / organised / tidy / consistent.

I’m interesting / conscientious / happy / attractive / mindful.

The world is exciting / beautiful / good / full of possibilities.

When you have written down a new set of positive beliefs, remind yourself again: these are all just opinions. Then put the two lists side by side. Since both lists are made up only of opinions and not empirical facts, ask yourself, “Which list do I want to adopt as my own?”

Bring to mind what your life has been like with the first list of negative opinions. How have those opinions shaped your thoughts, your actions and the results you have been getting in life? Have the negative opinions helped or hindered you? Have they enriched your life or have they made it dull and dismal?

Imagine what your life might be like if you were to throw away the list of negative opinions and chose instead to believe the list of positive opinions. How would you react in stressful situations if you believed yourself to be a calm person? How would you conduct yourself at home and at work if you believed yourself to be confident, capable and organised? Would this list of positive opinions enrich your life?

The answer is obviously yes. Having positive opinions about yourself and the world you live in is always better than having negative opinions. An individual who believes themselves to be confident, happy, calm, sexy and productive will always enjoy life more than one who believes themselves to be shy, depressed, stressed, ugly and lazy, so why not simply get rid of the old list and adopt the new one as your own?

Some people get to this point and then comment that, “It isn’t that easy! You can’t simply throw away a bunch of negative beliefs and adopt a brand new set of positive ones!” But that in itself is just a negative belief – an opinion which holds them back from getting more out of life. The truth is that changing your beliefs can be as easy as you want it to be, because all you are really doing is changing your opinions.

If you want to live life at the highest possible level, you need to get rid of your self-defeating negative opinions and replace them with positive ones. Because many of your opinions about yourself and the world you live in act as self-fulfilling prophecies, it makes sense to monitor your opinions closely and to throw the disempowering ones out as soon as you recognise them for what they are.

Of course, if you have lived for thirty or forty years with a certain set of negative opinions (such as “I’m too shy” or “I’m too lazy”) then suddenly adopting an opposing set of positive opinions (such as “I’m confident” or “I’m industrious”) will feel a little strange. You may even feel as if you are being a fraud or kidding yourself. But that’s only because you have spent so many years acting as if the negative list of opinions were really true. If you ignore the uncomfortable feelings and just focus on acting as if the positive list of opinions is true, you will find that they start feeling familiar and comfortable after just a few weeks. And after a few months the new set of positive beliefs will have displaced the old set entirely.

As your new positive opinions about yourself and the world take root, you will notice that you automatically start thinking, speaking and acting in a much more positive way. The people around you will soon sense this and start treating you differently as a result. This is the self-fulfilling power of belief at work – a power which you now have working for you instead of against you.

Dom Strong is the owner of www.dominate-your-life.com, a free website that teaches you how to take control of your life and achieve your goals with certainty.

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