Tag Archive for: Beliefs

Our Past Does Not Equal Our Future

While the past can be a predictor of the future, it doesn’t have to be that way. The past will predict our future when we are not aware enough of our past experiences to learn from them.

I believe that the universe has a funny way of predicting the future. We are all given tests throughout our lives and if we fail those tests, we get to repeat them over and over again until we learn the lesson hidden inside. The good part of this is that we are given endless opportunities to make different choices.  The bad part is that we are given endless opportunities to make different choices. If you are stubborn like me, you get to repeat them lots of times.  However, that was before I started looking at every setback as an opportunity for growth. Almost immediately I started passing those tests and haven’t had to relive them again.

So, how do you not repeat the past? Here are a few tips to get you on the right track for creating a future filled with love, joy, peace, and happiness.

1) Inventory Your Past – Take a few minutes to identify as many setbacks as you can. After you make that list, look for the hidden message held within. Just writing the setbacks down can be liberating as it is acknowledging that there is an opportunity for a lesson to be learned. If you look at the situation long enough, you will see the opportunity.  If you are struggling with finding the opportunity, ask the following question to yourself, “What lesson is in this [situation] for me?”

2) Look for Repeats – After you make a list of the setbacks, take a few more moments to see if they are related to others on the list. I can almost guarantee that there will be. For me, I had a job when I was in college and had a lady there that was negative and challenging. I changed jobs and sure enough, the same person appeared, just a different face. After several years struggling with that relationship, I got a new job in a big city. Within a couple of months, sure enough, the same person appeared in my life. Although she had a different name and face, the traits were identical. I decided to do something different this time and as a result, that personality hasn’t shown up again since and it has been over 16+ years!

3) Change Your Beliefs – A lot of times I see that that the lessons to be learned involve our negative self-limiting beliefs. I wrote an entire blog post about that one and you can click here to go to that post for several ideas about how to change beliefs.

4) Practice Forgiveness – The main reason we are put on this earth is to practice forgiveness. If you think about it, there are many opportunities for forgiveness every single day. When you look at a struggle, offer forgiveness versus blame. When you offer forgiveness, remember to offer forgiveness to yourself. When you do, your life will open up in ways you never thought possible.

5) Take the Kindness Challenge – One way I have been able to change my future is to practice kindness regularly. I even schedule on my calendar! I also update the Kindness Challenge on my website so click here to check out the latest Kindness Challenge. You can log them into your very own kindness meter and are also offered over 200 kind deed suggestions when you register for a free account.

The key to a successful and happy future lies within our ability to acknowledge the past, look for repetition in setbacks, change our beliefs that hold us back while practicing forgiveness daily. Once you have those mastered, practicing kindness daily helps to keep you creating a new, powerful future filled with love and happiness.

With peace and gratitude,
Bill

Beliefs: How to Challenge Them Now

When I was younger, I thought that beliefs could not be changed. My “belief” was that once I had a particular belief, I was destined to carry it my entire life. I then realized I was dead wrong on that matter. In fact, changing a negative, self-limiting belief can be changed almost instantly.

But before I dive into changing beliefs, let me give you a little background about beliefs and where they come from.

Beliefs are only thoughts held to be true.  They are not right or wrong, true or false, just VERY strong opinions. So, why is it important to constantly challenge your beliefs? The reality is that you will always act or not act in accordance to your predominate beliefs.

We need to distinguish ideas and beliefs so we can understand how to change them. Beliefs start out as just an idea that grows powerful as we put more focus and energy to it. Tony Robbins said it best; ideas are like a table with no legs while beliefs are the legs that hold up the table or idea. Remember that beliefs are not right or wrong so we can easily create beliefs that do not serve us. One other key thing to mention is that two people can have go through the same experience and leave with two completely separate beliefs.

What we need to do is become aware of when we are putting “legs” under that table. One quick way I have found is understanding the power of our vocabulary. The most powerful words we can speak are “I am.” You can say that confirming “I am” puts more legs under the idea (table) whether it is right or wrong. This means we can easily create powerful beliefs about ourselves that are completely self-limiting.

Here’s an easy four-step process I developed for changing those negative beliefs:
1) Awareness – become aware of what we are thinking
2) Thoughts – change our negative thoughts
3) Re-Program – re-write or re-program the thought
4) Vocabulary – change the words you are staying on a consistent basis

Most of the time we focus on what is not working, what is not right or what we feel we cannot change. By becoming aware of what we think, change negative thoughts to positive ones, re-program the thought or idea to empowering ones and this can be easily accomplished by changing a negative vocabulary to a more positive one.

With peace and gratitude,
Bill

Change Your STINKIN’ Beliefs

It is critical to change any self-limiting beliefs that you carry with you. What I have learned is that a lot of our “STINKIN” beliefs are passed down to us in the form of family, friends and things not really about us.  We can easily pick up beliefs that others held for themselves and many of those were passed down to them. It isn’t about awareness because if we were aware, we would certainly not buy into some of these.

Here is what I have learned about beliefs:
1) Beliefs are really just thoughts held to be true.
2) They are not right or wrong, true or false.
3) They are simply VERY strong OPINIONS we hold.

To eliminate those self-limiting beliefs, here are a few things that I have done that helped me get rid of them:
1) Become aware of your STINKIN’ beliefs. When you hear that little voice, ask the question, “What would I have to believe to make this true?” and “Is this belief worth changing?” If it is, continue to #2:
2) Change your thoughts. Purposefully change what you think about for the self-limiting belief. Simply re-affirm a positive belief instead. For example, Old belief: “I am a slow reader.” will change to “I AM a fast reader who comprehends everything I read.” Now, just saying those words will not change the belief so you have to go to #3.
3) Re-write or Re-program the old belief. This consists of two parts: 1) Create repetition to re-enforce the new belief and 2) Take action to help convince yourself that the new belief is true. For the reading example above, you would find resources to help you with reading. Maybe you could take a reading class, hire a reading specialist, find something on YouTube, the internet or a book store. Then create the repetition of learning and re-enforcing the new belief.
4) Change the words you use. Create powerful affirmations that support the new belief and practice several times each day. Use the words “I AM” to get maximum effect. It would look something like this: “I AM a powerful, positive person. I read fast and comprehend everything I read with ease.”

What are some of your self-limiting beliefs? Do you care to share them here? If not, please feel free to email me directly.
With peace and gratitude,
Bill