Beliefs define you! During my business life, I have tried a lot of thinks. Either from a position in a business hierarchy, or from a personal point level. One of the most important lessons, I have learned during this time, is that your beliefs direct your thoughts and actions!

Beliefs

What do you think you are (as a person, role, professional, etc.), or how do you think you are going to behave in a given situation, soon, it is the way you do it!

On Beliefs

Beliefs are the foundations of our actions. What you believe for yourself is what direct you towards the achievement (or not!) of a goal. It is the difference between your success or failure!

Belief, in general, can be defined, as:

a mental representation of a sentient being’s attitude toward the likelihood or truth of something. (Wikipedia: Belief)

This definition, though, leaves a lot of room for personal “interpretations”! This simply means, that beliefs, does not always depend on real facts, but, sometimes, are rooted on personal “representations” of the reality. Most of the times, it is what the old saying says:”it is so if you believe it!“.

This is exactly the appropriate state of mind, you need in order to pursue and achieve your goals in your personal and professional life!

When the things are not going in the way you have planned, usually, there is a false assumption, belief or opinion, that derails you from the intended course of action! As a consequence, when you need to change something in you life, you need to change your belief on something! You have to work with yourself (for yourself!)

Against The Beliefs of Other People

Sometimes our beliefs might contradict the beliefs of other people, or even to the reality! It is not always wise, to follow a belief that does not have correspondence to the reality. You should constantly checking your beliefs against the external environment and scrutinize the results this particular belief yields for you.

If the result of this examination is proved OK (i.e. if this particular belief helps you navigate and handle better real life situations and makes your life better in more than one ways), you can maintain this belief and enhance it by applying it in many similar situations; if not, then you should change it in or transform it in something that would produce better results for you!

Always Check Against Reality!

Always you need to examine your beliefs against the reality, filter them via your principles and values and benchmark them against real life situations in order to validate them and keep them as integral part of your mental toolbox!

And, you should, promptly, have a way of detaching from false beliefs, when you have decided that a belief is not longer of value for you!

If you want to make a difference in your personal or/and professional life, you need to, periodically, re-examine your beliefs, and remove the ones are not longer valid for your way of thinking or/and doing or contradict to the reality you want to handle! Only this process can guarantee, that your beliefs are still valid and can serve you effectively in your way of life!

Question: Do you think that your beliefs promote you or demote you in the things you want to achieve? When it was the last time you have challenged a belief of yours? Do you know which of your beliefs are still valid, or not?