The Mindset Junkie: The Power of Beliefs

The power of beliefs was demonstrated in a study with a group of children with average intelligence.

The group was divided at random into two equal groups. One group was assigned to one teacher and was told that they were “gifted”. The other was to a teacher who was told that they were “slow learners”.

A year later the two groups were re-tested and, not surprisingly, the group that was arbitrarily identified as gifted scored higher than they previously had, while the slow learner group scored low.

Why was this? Well the teacher’s beliefs about the students effected their ability to learn!

This study, highlighted in the book ‘Sleight of Mouth’ by Doug O’Brien is just one example of how early conditioning and unconscious beliefs can impact how we think and feel about ourselves.

This effects our results in later life as we’ve taken on beliefs that weren’t even ours to begin with and we let those beliefs control the actions we take daily.

This is why you should question every limiting belief that you feel about yourself. Does that limiting belief you have, and we have many, hold true? Does it have any validation?

The vast majority of times they have no real reason to stop us at all, but unfortunately they do as they have become so hard wired into our being that we find it hard to break that belief.

A limiting belief is like a thought virus and we need to identify them, rewrite them and build immunity so that it has no effect on us again.

Most of your beliefs aren’t yours so if they aren’t serving you it’s time to change them.

I heard a great quote that: “a belief is nothing more than a group of cells that have been reinforced,” and I believe that’s true.

But it’s not so easy to break them or identify them as most of those beliefs we have inherited, or we have learned them at such a young age that they are now unconscious. They are deep in our subconscious mind that our perception and how we experience reality reinforces those beliefs on a daily basis.

A very common one that we are all aware of in our culture is: “Money is the root of all evil” or “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” It’s crazy as a coach how many times I hear statements like these or similar.

Money is simply another form of energy and what you pay or receive in return is a transference of that energy or attached value for the service or product.

But we have grown up and have heard so many statements like these that they have become something we have embedded into our belief systems. It’s only until we wonder why we struggle financially that we possibly see that our thoughts and beliefs around it need addressed.

I struggled with so many negative beliefs for years around the exact same issues about money, about myself and more. I have changed a lot of those beliefs and my results have changed accordingly.

In my experience over the years as a coach, until we really change those beliefs the results won’t change. If you don’t believe it’s possible you simply won’t try. Yet if you changed that belief you would and could experience a different result.