Whose Beliefs Run Your Life?

We all have beliefs. We believe we’re attractive, strong, healthy, successful, intelligent, aging well, corny, superior….  or not.   Our beliefs about ourselves are darned near endless.

We have beliefs about our business and our professional selves too. We can double our income/revenue, we can expand into new markets, create breakout innovation.  We can’t grow in a down economy, we must downsize because everyone is downsizing, the market sucks so no wonder our business is down.

Our business beliefs are endless too.

Yet here’s the thing about beliefs. The majority of your beliefs are not really yours.

Say what?  That’s right.  Our beliefs were programmed into us by instincts, by others and by life.

Programmed to Believe

From the day we’re born, we begin to be programmed. Our “others” program a majority of our fundamental beliefs. Before we are 7 years old, we believe everything that is said to us and that happens to us is true. During these years, we form the foundation of our beliefs for life.

• Our parents and siblings program our beliefs about family, life, foods, playtime and more.  Your father failed at owning his own business so you believe that it’s best to work for others.
• Our teachers and peers program our beliefs about the world, right and wrong, behaviors and more. Your third grade teacher drilled into your head that being on time is critical to success. So when that person who is always late ends up making more money – you scratch your head and wonder, “WTH?” 
• The television we watched, books we read, games we played and virtually everything we experienced as children imprints on our beliefs. Have you ever wondered why you automatically choose a brand of dish soap, cleaning supplies, motor oil or other products?  Ask yourself, did your parents use those brands? 

These foundational beliefs create mindware programs that guide us to select our reality, forming a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies that may or may not represent the truth, or our full potential.

A Personal Example

I was brought up in a small and very conservative midwestern town. Things like telling the truth and keeping commitments no matter what were engrained in me from the moment I was born. So were other beliefs. I was a bright child and my beloved mother didn’t want a spoiled brat only child on her hands (I was born when she was 42 so I had all of her attention.)  So, my mom taught me a well meaning and very simple truth.  God had given me more than my fair share of talent and gifts. That meant I had to give back to others so that God would be pleased with me.

Fast forward to me at fifty five years old.  I looked around my life and realized I wasn’t really living my life. I was living the life I needed to live to care for of all the folks in my life that I’d collected along the way. Folks who I was giving, giving and giving to as part of what I believed was a normal life. I didn’t have any boundaries about what I really wanted – beyond my horses and my career. Most of my personal life was driven by that simple belief my Mom programmed into my mindware. And I didn’t even know it.

Thanks to my studies in neuroscience, I recognized that belief and cleared it. Yes, it’s good to give to others. I do believe that. But not at the expense of my own truth. I realize now that I’ve spent a lot of my life sublimating my dreams and desires so that I could take care of the seemingly endless stream of  broken winged birds that appeared in my life.

When I upgraded that childhood mindware program –  the broken winged birds stopped showing up in my life. The birds whom I was taking care of suddenly decided to spread their own wings too. It was  magic.  Mind magic.

Coincidence?  Some would say that. I know the truth.  I changed my belief, upgraded my mindware and as a result, my reality shifted to match my new program. It really is that simple.

Every day, I find simple beliefs that impact my life.  As I shift those beliefs to focus on what I really want, my life shifts to deliver just that.

The Bottom Line

From our preference for fashion, color, household products and more –  we’re running a program. Some of our programmed beliefs are important – like the necessity of truth and keeping commitments. I personally think some humans need more of that belief imprinted, but that’s another story.

Yet many of our beliefs stand in the way of our ultimate selves.  Limiting what we can envision, how we think and speak about ourselves and our success, how we feel about our potential. These are the beliefs that need to be reprogrammed – their mindware upgraded to embrace the truth of our powerful selves.

We’re also programmed with business beliefs that are as limiting and inaccurate as our personal beliefs.  We’ll chat about those tomorrow.

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