Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Monday 29th November 2010 | No comments
All of us have a tape inside our heads that contains our beliefs about our world. These are not necessarily helpful to you today, or even true. They were laid down long ago, and should be brought out and checked against the light of day from time to time.
Some of them were literally absorbed with your baby food, some from school, our culture or early life experience. How many people are told by their first teacher that they couldn't draw or spell or were too loud or....and still believe that today? Or did your mother tell you that you shouldn't trust people, or did your father explain that the only definition of success was a uni degree and a good salary - and do you still think that's true? Or did you absorb the message from the world around you that to be acceptable you needed a great body, a fast car, a big bank balance, a cool mobile or... The examples could go on and on.
Some of your beliefs are no doubt useful to you (such as 'I can be really determined', 'Life usually works out OK' or whatever) but it is quite possible to sidestep beliefs that are not true any more, or which are not helpful ('I never finish things', 'No-one will help me').
You may well think of some of these not as beliefs, but how the world really is. In fact, the more desperately we defend our view that, for example, 'everyone knows that people can't be trusted...' the more likely it is to be a belief, rather than an objective observation of reality.
The first step is to get really clear on your beliefs - what are your perspectives and attitudes? Only then can you start changing those that no longer serve you. My beliefs once included such decidedly un-useful things as 'No-one will help me', 'I would rather die than network', 'Success is not an option' and 'Sensible people don't take risks'. It took some time to eradicate that lot, but I have now largely succeeded - and the change has been huge.
If you'd like to know more about dealing with beliefs, email me for a longer worksheet, or if you are in Sydney, come along to the Athena Network's Fearlessly Creating seminar on 8 December, details here, where I am presenting on this very subject.
What are some of your beliefs about work? About success? About change? What do you believe about risk taking? About the importance of money? How have these beliefs affected your life?
Tag: ideas
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