You are always believing in something
There is a huge difference between choices we are conscious of
and choices that are consciously made
There are only two things that cause you to do anything: belief and understanding. Some people have the belief they can do better. Other people don’t believe they can do better but through understanding and re-evaluation move from a non-believer to a believer.
For example, before Roger Bannister completed the sub four-minute mile, it was believed such an achievement was impossible. Sports commentators and physiologists said it could not be done. Roger Bannister had the belief it could be done and on 6 May 1954 achieved the ‘impossible’. By 1979, over 300 other runners had broken the four-minute barrier. Their beliefs changed in light of their re-evaluation of the Truth.
How beliefs work
In order to understand why beliefs are so important to your success, let’s take a quick look at how they work. According to Hungarian biologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, there are two million bits of information bombarding our senses every second of every day. If we try to make sense of all this information we would go insane. So our nervous system filters the two million bits of information down to 134 bits through a process of deletion, distortion and generalisation. All three processes are quite natural and essential. The system in charge of filtering all of this information is called the ‘Reticular Activating System’ or RAS. Roughly the size of a little finger, the RAS runs from the top of the spinal cord into the middle of the brain and automatically filters incoming stimuli into what is important and what is not important based upon our beliefs, values and prejudices.
For example, we can probably all relate to the following car experience. Have you ever took ownership of a new car and then seen identical cars everywhere you go. They’re at the stop lights, parked near you in the car park and cruising past you on the freeway. You can’t believe it, where have they all suddenly appeared from? Well of course these similar cars have been ‘out there’ all the time, but they have not appeared in your reality because they have not been important to you. You have unconsciously filtered them out of your awareness.
Your beliefs create your experiences
So why is this information important to you? Well your experiences in life are determined by what you focus on. And you can’t focus and take action on things you have deleted from your awareness. And so the filtering process is crucial to understand because it provides the ‘raw material’ upon which you create your life experiences.
Yet only 0.0067% of the available information filters into your awareness, the rest is filtered out. So unless you are very clear and specific on what you desire, you will unconsciously filter out all the ideas and opportunities that could help you. Think about this carefully because it means your beliefs act as a sort of gatekeeper through which you grant or refuse permission for certain thoughts and ideas to flow into your awareness.
The subconscious mind cannot think for itself. It’s job is to make sure that what you believe will become true for you. For example, if you believe “it’s hard to earn money” or “money is evil” or “I don’t deserve to be rich” the filtering process will work as follows. You will unconsciously delete and distort all incoming information so as to support these limiting beliefs. You will attract and be attracted to people and situations that confirm the truth of what you believe. If you are faced with a number of possible interpretations, you will select those which support your beliefs and filter out the many other valid interpretations which contradict your beliefs.
You did not choose your beliefs
So where do your beliefs come from in the first place? Well, one thing is for sure, you did not choose them. When you are born, your fertile subconscious mind is wide open because none of your higher faculties (such as your ability to reason and reject information) have developed. As a result, parents, teachers and others in authority can place any information in your subconscious mind and if it is repeated over and over again, it forms your beliefs. These beliefs are neither accurate nor complete and are simply the product of other peoples’ habitual ways of thinking. This may be why the word belief has the word “lie” in it!
So although The Law of Vibration and Attraction confirms that, at some level, you have ‘attracted’ all of your life’s experiences, it is also true that there is a big difference between choices we are conscious of and choices that are consciously made. For example, most people would agree that in addition to our inherited belief system, we did not consciously choose the DNA received from our parents at conception. This provides the blueprint for our body’s physicality as well as any intellectual, psychological or emotional predispositions. Neither did we consciously choose our childhood environment which moulded and shaped our developing neurology.
You are doing the best you can
So don’t be too harsh on yourself as you read and complete the exercises in this blog. You are doing the very best you can based on your current level of awareness. The purpose of this blog is to help you raise your level of awareness so that you can create your life by design, rather than by default.
Consider this. When a speedboat travels across the water, it leaves a white foamy froth behind called the wake. The wake is not driving the boat. The boat moves because of the energy generated by the engine in the present moment. The wake is simply the trail left behind. The same principle applies to your life.
You do have a past (wake) in which choices were not consciously made, but it is your choices in this present moment that will determine your progress forward. So how do you identify any beliefs you may have which may be holding you back from achieving your desires? Well because your beliefs will always become true for you, your present results are an accurate reflection of your current beliefs in the main areas of your life.
FREE BELIEF STUDY WORKBOOK
If you wish to review your current beliefs, a complimentary belief study workbook, including instructions, exercises and templates has been prepared to assist you with this process.
Warning!
Paradoxically, your current belief system may try to convince you that you do not need to download this workbook and review your current beliefs! This would be a mistake. E.M. Gray spent his life searching for the common denominator shared by successful people. He found it wasn’t hard work, good luck or astute human relations, though these were important. In his essay “The Common Denominator of Success”, he observed, “The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do.”
Failures do not like to spend the time required to review their current belief systems. But it is not a ‘spending’ of time, but an ‘investment’ of time, because if you are not living the lifestyle you would choose, it is because your core beliefs are not in vibrational harmony with what you desire.
ACTION
Step One
Download your copy of the BELIEF STUDY WORKBOOK (if you haven’t already)
Step Two
Are you allowing your past (wake) to drive you forward? Sit quietly in contemplation of this question. Realise your past has no power over you other than what you give it. Re-read Mindset and watch the inspiring videos to remind yourself that you always have a choice as to how you will respond to your current circumstances.
Step Three
Be kind to yourself. We all do the best we can based on our present level of awareness. As Oprah says, when you know better, you can do better. And the fact you are reading this blog is evidence you are taking steps to do better. So pat yourself on the back and CONGRATULATIONS.
In every single moment, we are all drawing on the same infinite power and working with exactly the same laws. This means what one person can do, others can do too. As George Elliot reminds us “It’s never too late in life to be what you might have been”.
