Analyzing Your Beliefs
A few summers ago, I had a chance to participate in a weekend workshop called Avatar. The basic premise of the workshop is to drill down and identify core beliefs through a series of exercises. These are beliefs you hold about yourself, your family and friends, your relationships, and your expectations from life. It was all about getting back to basics and identifying and embracing beliefs that still honor the person you are today and discarding beliefs that no longer serve you. Those outdated beliefs need to be removed and/or replaced with new, more appropriate beliefs. A simple example: The belief that it is bad to talk to strangers served me well as a child and kept me safe, but if I followed that advice today, I don't think I would have any clients!
My good friend and nutritionist, Rebecca Karchere, completed the same Avatar workshop with me. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to incorporate a discussion on beliefs into a workshop of our own titled, "Lose the Clutter, Drop the Weight." In the session, we initially ask the participants to write down their beliefs about people who are "organized" vs. "disorganized." It is always very interesting to hear their answers. For example, one attendee said "organized people are stressed out and uptight." Another assumed that, "disorganized people aren't very successful. How can they be if they can't find anything?" After hearing a few such responses, we were compelled to ask the question:
How do your beliefs about being organized or disorganized affect your ability to accomplish your organization goals? Do you think your beliefs are moving you forward by allowing you to change, or holding you back?
Consider these scenarios:
- If you think of yourself as a disorganized person and you hold a belief that "organized people are stressed out and uptight," why are you trying get organized? Why would you want to accomplish something that you believe would create stress?
- Similarly if you consider yourself to be a disorganized person and believe that "disorganized people aren't very successful," how do you think that belief will affect your ability to be successful? Your belief may be limiting you from achieving your goals.
Over the next couple of weeks, I challenge you to take a look at your beliefs. Think about a goal you're trying to accomplish - getting organized, losing weight, making more money - and take a step back to identify the beliefs you hold surrounding that goal. What do you believe about people who are "fat" vs. "skinny?" What do you believe about the weight loss process? What do you believe about people who are "rich" vs. "poor?" The exercise may highlight a few roadblocks getting in your way. Once you identify a belief that no longer serves you, it is simply a matter of changing your thought process and adopting a belief that can get you back on the path to achieving your goal.
