beliefs

Powerful reinforcements

Beliefs, whether based on fact or fiction, are human inventions that help us make sense of ourselves and the world. Neuroscience research demonstrates that training and positive reinforcement can change people’s minds and behaviours. When we tell people what to do, we engage only their short-term cognitive memory, and as a result, they often forget much of the information, and it rarely leads to meaningful behavioural change. For instance, consider how many things you know you should be doing but haven’t acted on. Knowledge alone doesn’t transform our perception of ourselves or the world. Coaching is different. It facilitates long-term behavioural change by helping the brain rewire. I think as a person’s neural pathways evolve, their self-image and worldview shift, which in turn drives new behaviours. This lasting transformation is something that simple instructions cannot achieve.

““It’s hard to learn when you already know.””
— Amy Edmondson

Culture is always moving

Being a curious and authentic person comes with challenges. I have the ability to understand the different beliefs, values, and customs that someone has based on that person's origins. I think it’s impossible to talk about anything from the past based on how we live today. Culture is always moving, therefore, it’s difficult to pass judgement on life was like in another time or region. What we perceive as civilised in one part of the world may be viewed as barbaric in another, and vice versa. This doesn’t make it wrong, it’s just a reflection of their respective cultures and viewpoints. It’s crucial to recognise that neither side is inherently right or wrong – these are simply two different ways of life, as everyone is just trying to solve their challenges in the best way possible.

Awakening slowly

Heading into a new year is a great time to take stock of where you've been and where you want to go. Studies show that self-awareness is a foundation for better decision-making, higher performance, and more effective, authentic leadership. As we grow spiritually, raising our consciousness, many of our painful experiences are simply growing pains. Everyone has perception, for example, when I see a tree, I see its beauty, the colours of the leaves, its shape, how it fits into the landscape. Another person frets because the tree is blocking their sea view. Each person’s perception is created from experiences, education, and belief systems. In this sense, we each live in our own world, defined by our perception and as we strive to improve our circumstances, we must strive to improve the world.

““We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.””
— Galileo Galilei
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Preaching to the choir

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Think about the times you have sat in an audience - whether in person or on a digital device – listening to a speaker, you are being influenced. It doesn’t matter what they are saying whether you think it is good or bad, how much you agree  or disagree with it, you are being influenced. This morning I looked up the word, influence and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, influence means “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.”

 

Each of us live our lives based on a worldview, and our worldview is essentially one’s spectrum of perceptions from knowledge to beliefs with countless opinions in between. In other words, our worldview consists of our knowledge, our opinions, and our beliefs. And if we have self-confidence, we hold each of these or all of them as truths, not true in that they could be proven, true, in that is how we see it. 

  • Knowledge is what we know with enough certainty and evidence to support it.

  • Beliefs is what we hold as true, although there is no objective or formal evidence to prove it. 

  • Opinions is what we hold with enough evidence to know that is the way we see things.

I can inform someone’s knowledge and if they disagree, I can support my view with enough evidence to convince them unless they just object no matter what. On the other hand, beliefs are what I believe even when I have no direct evidence to support it. Most of us have had beliefs through our lives that changed and became opinions. Opinions are what we hold as true because we have enough evidence and strong enough beliefs to see something as being proper. We have opinions about everything, for example, sports, relationships, health, parenting, leadership, management, etc. The reason why I have different views today than previously is that I have been persuaded to change many of my opinions through additional evidence and by views of others I trust.

You will become unstoppable

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What do you think about the headline?
You will be unstoppable when you create a purpose for your work that is bigger than yourself! How many great minds with solutions to big problems are out there? And many of them are blocked by the same problems. Some of the most defining moments in our lives happen around our traumas. I think if you don’t have a reason or story - in other words a purpose - to keep showing up and doing the work, then it will wear you down.

I think what makes you unique and stand out from the sea of competition is who you are and how you are working with people. How you do what you do and the beliefs and values that you emphasise in your process. I guarantee that you will feel empowered when you start to pick up on that divine purpose you have for being here on the planet. All the roadblocks in your way will be more easily overcome. In reality people want to work for an organisation and in a team where there is meaning behind what they do.

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Don't blame the machine

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I was very young when I heard the proverb - a bad workman always blames his tools - for the first time. The meaning of this proverb is our success does not depend on what kind of tools we have but how we use them. In other words, a person may have the best equipment in the world but if he does not know how to use them, he can never complete a job successfully.


I am not a medical professional, but I do think that it’s our beliefs and not our DNA that affects our biology. Throughout my life I have heard “sob stories” from people who believe that they are victims of their heredity. After reading masses of literature on the subject, modern research shows that genes do not control anything. We are the masters of our genetic fate because we can change our beliefs, environment and minds, and these are the things that control our biology.

Genes are only responsible for less than 1% of the diseases on earth, so 99% of illnesses are not because of a physical breakdown. It’s what Bruce Lipton metaphorically calls “driver error”. For many years scientists believed that our genes were controlling us, our genes were the “driver of our lives”. Nowadays we acknowledge that the mind is the real controller, and with good programming for example, how to take care of our health, our biology and the environment in which we live, then we will realise that we are the masters of our genetic fate.


Our thoughts, beliefs and how we interact with the world are affecting our genetic expression - mind and body. Our body responds to the chemistry of our thoughts, this can be easily demonstrated by a simple example: compare the feeling of being in love and the feeling of being scared. The chemicals released into our body when we are in love are completely different to the emotions felt when the brain is in fear mode.

6 steps to realise success

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According to Dr. David Harold Fink (psychiatrist) there are six steps that will help you achieve success. As today is my youngest daughter’s birthday I will just accept Dr. Fink’s advice.

  1. Set yourself a definite goal.

  2. Quit running yourself down.

  3. Stop thinking about all the reasons why you cannot be successful, instead think of of the reasons why you can.

  4. Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful.

  5. Change the image you have of yourself by writing out the description of the person you would like to be.

  6. Act the part of that successful person you have decided to become.