compliments of FutureVisions^SM

creating sustainable results in growth and performance

I want to explore with you how belief systems are reflected in our work. For this exercise, you can either focus on your current job or create a composite of work environments that meld together consistent themes found at several jobs.

We hold many beliefs in connection with our relationships to work. Some fall into the empowering category, while others are restricting. Those beliefs, whether positive or negative, generally relate to our life views about the following:’

· self-esteem
· excellence
· opinions of others
· success
· power
· money
· relationships
· intelligence
· life as challenge
· life as adversity
· abundance
· scarcity
· half-full glasses
· half-empty glasses
· general sense of trust
· general sense of distrust

I want you to consider how these (or other) beliefs are reflected in your work. On the left side of a sheet of paper, write the beliefs you bring to work that are empowering. For example, you may believe that you are successful, open, or up to any challenges you face. You can reinforce these empowering beliefs by answering the following questions:

1. How have these empowering beliefs supported you at work?
2. What influences helped you develop these empowering beliefs?
3. What in your life most supports these beliefs?

Now look at your restricting beliefs. On the right side of the paper, write any beliefs you bring to work that are restricting. Examples might include fears of not measuring up, not performing, or not being good enough. Consider the following questions:

1. What persons in my life have given voice to these beliefs?
2. How do I reflect these beliefs at work?
3. How do I support these restricting beliefs in my life?

It takes effort to change restricting beliefs, just as it took effort and repetition to create them. When we view life from a negative perspective, we look for ways to validate that life view. The more validation we find, the more we accept restricting beliefs. To break that cycle, we must find ways to challenge why we believe what we believe. One way is to question the assumptions we hold underneath those beliefs. Explore these pages to get you started:

10 Common Self Defeating Beliefs

	13 Forms of Distorted Thinking
	10 Common Irrational Thoughts
	5 Common Fallacies

Instead of looking for ways to reinforce our beliefs, we need to find validation that will transform our negative assumptions into positive ones. The steps I am suggesting are these:

1. Identify the restricting beliefs and the negative assumptions that reinforce those beliefs.
2. Challenge the validity of those beliefs by challenging the assumptions under them. In what ways could they be wrong or incomplete? The more challenges you can develop, the weaker the ties will be to the restricting beliefs.
3. Explore positive beliefs that would challenge your negative ones. Find validation for empowering, rather than restricting, beliefs. Again, the more you can reinforce empowering beliefs, the more lightly you will be attached to restricting beliefs.
4. Adopt a statement you are willing to work with that turns a restricting belief into an empowering one. Each time your habit pattern starts to move toward reinforcing the restricting belief, go back to your written statement. That statement is your guide for turning around restricting belief systems.

Start with a single restricting belief. Don’t make your goal so ambitious that you sabotage yourself. In his book, Awaken the Giant Within, author Tony Robbins writes about breaking old belief systems by visualizing a negative situation in ways—often comical—that minimize its power. If the source of the restricting belief is a person, see that person reduced in size, just as your dimensions grow. Place the person far away, or locked in a container, or only as a cartoon with a squeaky voice. If it’s a place, play with size and structure so that its qualities become less than life-sized. When you feel progress with converting the restricting belief you tackled, select another.

The idea of beliefs (positive and negative) is linked to a long-standing body of work that espouses the idea that you manifest what you believe. Norman Vincent Peale became a household name in 1952 with the publication of his best-seller, The Power of Positive Thinking. More recently, in 1996, David Spangler published a popular book entitled EveryDay Miracles—The Inner Art of Manifestation. Both works, written more than forty years apart, support a common theme—we can help shape our reality by attention to our thoughts and feelings. The idea of turning around negative beliefs by finding positive alternatives is a life-affirming commitment worthy of attention.

If you've already tried to “let go” of attachments and beliefs but nothing seems to work, you are in Click here for the Six-Step Change Model for changing your thoughts and increasing your happiness

Click here for the ABC Change Model for learning optimism