A Belief is a closely held generalization about causation, meaning, and boundaries in the world, our behaviors, our capabilities, and
our identities.
What? Let’s try that again:
A Belief is a judgment or a generalization we hold to be true about the world around us, why we act as we do, what we are capable of accomplishing, and who we are.
Beliefs act as filters to our perceptions of the world around us. When we congruently believe something to be true, our brain gets busy to present reality in terms of our Belief. It is true that we do not experience reality but only our perception of reality.
There’s a saying in the sales profession, “Better to send one lion than ten lambs.” One salesman focused on closing a sale with the strength of a lion is worth ten salesmen who don’t know how to bring the sale to completion.
The same is true with Beliefs.
One man or woman with a Belief, with the strength of a conviction, is worth ten people with only good intentions.
Beliefs are so important to us because they allow you to create the life you desire. If you are filled with powerful and empowering Beliefs, you will attract the people and events you need to become successful. On the other hand, if you are filled with limiting Beliefs you will attract failure, poverty and ill health. There is no more powerful force on earth to organize and direct your Capabilities and Behaviors than Beliefs.
There is a classic story in abnormal psychology of a man who believes he is a corpse. His family takes him to a highly respected psychiatrist. The psychiatrist tries his best to convince the man that he is not dead and therefore cannot be a corpse. They have many arguments back and forth and finally the psychiatrist hits on an experiment that he is sure will convince the man. He says to the man, “Do corpses bleed?” The man thinks about this for a minute and answers, “No, all body functions have stopped so there is no bleeding.” So the psychiatrist picks up a needle and pricks the man’s finger. The man begins to bleed and is totally amazed and says, “Well, I’ll be darned. Corpses do bleed!”
The point of the story is that some Beliefs remain strong even in the face of evidence to the contrary. The reason is Beliefs are not about reality.
Beliefs are about your organized perceptions about reality.
Self Growth: What is a Belief and Why is it Important?
Another story shows us how to use these perceptions of reality to our advantage. The story concerns the barrier of the “four minute mile”. Prior to May 6, 1954 it was widely believed that four minutes was an unbreakable barrier to the speed with which a human being could run a mile. In the years prior to this date no one had even come close to breaking this barrier.
There was one man who firmly believed that the barrier could be broken and that he would be the one to do it. His name was Roger Bannister and on that fateful day he broke the barrier and ran the mile under four minutes.
That feat alone showed the power of one man’s Belief in his capabilities, but what happened next was the beginning of a new paradigm in running.
Within six weeks after Bannister broke the record, John Lundy from Australia lowered the record by another second. And, within the next nine years nearly two hundred people had broken the “impossible” barrier.
This example seems to demonstrate that our Beliefs can determine our Capabilities and Behaviors. These men all had talent and trained hard to be the best but until Bannister broke that record they were prisoners of their Belief that it was impossible.
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