Beliefs
BE COOL Principle #1
Beliefs Create Perception. Perception Creates Reality.
- Fundamentally, we developed much of what we believe about the world and ourselves at a very early age. Our parents or chief caregivers originally influenced many of our beliefs. If we were fortunate we received very positive and empowering beliefs from them that served us well later in life.
- Unfortunately, this is not always the case for everyone. Many of us, myself included, grew up in less than desirable circumstances in this regard. We were told to sit down, shut up, go along, do it this way, don’t make waves, life is tough, and a whole barrage of stuff that suggested to us we were nothing short of a worm of the dust. Mix some religious guilt and misinformation into it and you’ve potentially got a psychological stewpot whose contents don’t “taste very good” to say the least.
- But let’s stop right here. We’ve all heard this before. Frankly, my personal opinion is that parents and caregivers have been given a pretty bad rap in this respect. True, they often attempted to fill us with beliefs that were downright wrong and harmful, but here’s the rub. They were operating from their own erroneous conditioning and beliefs instilled in them during their youth. They simply didn’t know any better!
- However, before I let parents/caregivers completely off the hook, let me state a fundamental fact of life that is true for all of us on the planet: In life we must decide what we will believe as truth. This includes you, me, our parents, everybody.
- In the end, it doesn’t matter what happened to any of us in the past or what was said to us or about us. It only matters what we decide these things mean. Nothing has value until we give it meaning. In other words, we must choose what we believe as truth.
- Each of us lives in our own separate and unique universe. Your friends, relatives and neighbors are also living in their own universe. Our separate universes are really nothing more than an illusion of our own creation. What each of us decide is true within our personal universe is the only truth there is for us. Our individual truths, or beliefs, create our perception and our perception creates our reality - and perception is everything. Our perception will determine our dominant thought, emotional and behavior patterns, which will ultimately determine our results in life and how we experience our personal universe.
- Our core beliefs and perceptions are always centered in three basic areas. (1) What we believe about ourselves. (2) What we believe about other people. (3) What we believe about life. If you want to really know what you believe in your heart of hearts then honestly fill in the blanks of the following statements. Do it quickly. Your instant reaction is key:
- If you truthfully filled in the blanks of these statements it will reveal your dominant beliefs about everything in your own universe.
- Here’s an absolute, fundamental fact of life you need to know: Whatever you believe is true about life, other people or yourself, your subconscious mind will always, without fail, seek out people, circumstances and events and bring them into your personal experience of life to validate your “truths” as “reality”.
- The subconscious mind doesn’t judge anything as right or wrong. It is a goal seeking mechanism that simply works to manifest whatever we believe is true. Whether we like it or not, we do create our own reality. We literally construct our personal universe with the truths we’ve chosen to believe.
- The first step in the process of identifying what you really believe must begin with what you believe about yourself. Here’s why: Your beliefs about other people and life in general are guided by the core beliefs you have about yourself. You are the god of your own personal universe and you’ve created everything and everybody in it as an image of yourself. You will only be able to see in other people and the world at large what you see within yourself first.
- Too often we believe the source of our misery or difficulties lies within the circumstances, people or events outside ourselves when, in reality, they are simply an outward manifestation of what is going on inside of us. We are literally attracting everything we experience to ourselves based upon our dominant beliefs and perceptions. Why this is so will be discussed in other sections. For now, it is imperative you grasp this concept. It is the foundation on which all the other BE COOL principles are based.
- So if you’re not getting the results you want from some area of your life, I have a question for you: What do you think about what you think about?
- As you go through your daily work and life routine notice your instant thoughts and emotions about yourself, people and the world around you. Your instant thoughts and emotions are clues that reveal what you really believe about everything.
- Become an unbiased observer of your current habitual thought and emotional patterns without judgment. When you begin to think about what you think about you can begin to reevaluate what you believe is true. Then decide which beliefs work for you and begin working to change the ones that don’t.
- For example, what are your instant thoughts and emotions when you see people who are doing very well financially or when you think about someone you know (or know of) that is very rich? Your instant thoughts and emotions will reveal what you really believe about wealth, money and rich people.If your instant thoughts/emotions are negative - resentment, envy, irritation, etc - just make note of it. Don’t try to deny your thoughts/feelings with “positive thinking” Understand these thoughts and emotions are simply manifestations of your current subconscious beliefs, most likely carried forward from childhood.
- Once you identify what you really believe you can choose which beliefs to keep that work for your life and which to change. Once you decide on more empowering beliefs, commit to making them your own unique truth about yourself, other people and life. As you do, you’ll begin to radically transform your personal universe and the larger universe will begin to change to harmonize with it.
- To BE COOL we must learn to rethink what we think about. Changing core beliefs can take time but, in the end, it is not hard work, it’s liberation.
- The people and companies who have the BE COOL mindset have formed definite empowering core beliefs about themselves, other people and the world at large. They have looked inward to discover their own unique qualities and talents and have decided to believe in their own uniqueness. Developing stronger, more expanded beliefs about themselves they, in turn, attract people, circumstances and events that validate their truths. In choosing more empowering beliefs, they are now more able to give them their own special brand of expression in the world.
- Recognizing and developing our core beliefs also creates clarity about who we are as individuals or as a company. Once we become clear about who we really are, we are in a position to more openly express our unique talents in the world. How we express them is key, which brings us to our next component in our quest to BE COOL – Energy.