Do You Believe You Can or Believe You Can't? Whichever It Is, You Are Right

How do your beliefs shape your experience of life? Are there areas where challenging those beliefs might help to shift things in a more positive direction for you? The great thing is that beliefs are just thoughts and we really do have the capacity to chose how we think.
Getty

Have a think about it for a moment. What are your beliefs about what you can achieve?

We create our own reality based on our thoughts about the things that happen around us. We also perceive events through our very own filter. This filter is made up of our past experiences and thoughts about what is important to us right now. Two people can have the very same external experience but have two completely different reactions to it. If you believe that you are an unlucky person, not being hired following a job interview might confirm that belief and spiral into a negative thought pattern. For another, not being hired for that very same job might just lead to a happy thought that something much more suitable is just around the corner - a belief that the right thing will come along. Same situation - two very different outcomes.

How do your beliefs shape your experience of life? Are there areas where challenging those beliefs might help to shift things in a more positive direction for you? The great thing is that beliefs are just thoughts and we really do have the capacity to chose how we think.

Does this sounds like a crazy idea, choosing how we think? Just imagine for a moment choosing not to pay attention to a negative thought or belief. Just letting it drift away into the ether. We have a gazillion thoughts each day but they only become reality when we pay attention to them - when we give them power. How would it be to chose to let negative beliefs just float on by and be another of the many thoughts that don't affect us?

Play around with it for a moment. Think of something stressful or difficult and notice how it affects your state. What do you say to yourself? Perhaps your physiology changes - you may experience tension in your body, you might find yourself looking down, etc? Perhaps you'd describe it as feeling heavier? What picture do you see as you have these thoughts?

Now think of something happy and positive. Do you see a picture connected to this thought? What are you hearing as you're thinking this? What positive messages are you telling yourself? Notice how different that feels - lighter, freer, more positive perhaps?

Congratulations, you have just been responsible for completely changing your thoughts and your experience and it was entirely down to thought.

So I wonder, what could you achieve in your life if you believed you could do it? What would you dare to try?

A good question to remember is "Who would I be if..."

Who would I be if 'I believed I was good enough to do that job' or 'I believed I was worthy of a great relationship' or 'I am someone who runs marathons' or perhaps 'I can get on an airplane without fear'? Well the good news is all of the above is true. The only thing stopping you from any of those or other similar things is a belief - i.e. a thought.

Your response might have included something about health. Think of the paralympians. If those athletes believed that because they had a disability they couldn't possibly run, jump, row (insert pretty much anything there). Imagine how much less greatness we would have seen last year. If you have a negative response to what I'm suggesting - have a look at that too. What belief is getting in your way there?

If you feel stuck in negative beliefs that are holding you back there's lots that can be done to help. In my practice, I find it's one of the things that make the biggest difference to my client's experience. Creating new beliefs about what you can achieve and developing positive supportive thoughts patterns is an exciting journey. Just imagine - Who you would be if...

Close