Beliefs

I was watching a video the other day by the lovely Penny Ferguson who was talking about beliefs.  

It prompted me to put together something for you about some of our core content - our grassroots content around beliefs and the impact that they have on our experience, day to day, but also our ability to be successful in business.  

Beliefs are just that: beliefs. Not to be confused with truth.  

Many of us think that all our beliefs are truth and not all of them are. They can be vastly different.  

When we are born, we gather information as quickly as possible around who we are and what the world is so that we can have certainty. This information forms our beliefs. We gather evidence to support these beliefs and we stick with these beliefs - they're our anchor points.  

We gather evidence of these beliefs being true because that's what keeps us feeling safe. And, we choose to disregard any evidence that they're not true – anything which challenges our status quo.  

It's human nature to do this because we have a need to feel safe and certain, and our belief system is one of the anchor points that our safety and certainty is built on.  

There are beliefs that we have about ourselves, our business, the economy, that really support us moving forward and the outcome that we're looking to achieve - and others that really don't.  

However, if many of our beliefs about ourselves were created when we were much younger, doesn’t it make sense to review them?  

I highly recommend that you do that, so here’s an exercise for you. Grab a pen and paper and have a think about this.  

What are the positive and negative beliefs you have about… 

• Yourself? 
• Your business?  
• Your customers?  

• The economy, and what's happening out there right now?   
• The key people in your life?  

Make a list of those, really thinking about your evidence gathering.  

Firstly, your positive beliefs - these are beliefs that are really supporting you in the outcomes that you ultimately want to achieve. Keep those because they're really working for you and gather more evidence to support those beliefs.  

On the negative side, there are going to be beliefs that you have about yourself, or your business, or the economy, that will really pull you away from the outcome that you want.  

For example, one of the beliefs that I'm hearing a lot at the moment is that people and businesses aren't buying. But that's not my experience at all. My experience says that people are buying, but they're more cautious right now, they need more social proof.  

People are buying but they're not prepared to take the risks they were prepared to take before. With that in mind, I, as a business owner, can do whatever I need to do in order to support that belief, to change the way I approach the market, to change the way I speak to clients, but it's a positive belief that enables me to take the right action which ultimately supports my outcome.  

Think about what your negative beliefs are and think about what other beliefs you could focus on that would be more beneficial to you achieving ultimately what you want to achieve.  

Beliefs are super-powerful. It's definitely time to review your belief system.