Origin of Beliefs

Where do the beliefs you hold about yourself originate from? In the post I put on here from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle last week, Lou talked a little about where the negative beliefs we hold about ourselves may have come from. In this week’s he expands on that, and gives us some great examples of people who have been able to overcome that negativity.

How many of your beliefs about yourself were put there by others who may have been well-meaning, but mistaken?

Do you believe that you just don’t have what it takes to succeed in life – that you are not smart enough, strong enough or capable enough to achieve much?

If so, where did you originally get those beliefs? It could very well be from adults who gave you, when you were very young, their opinions about you. And because these people were your authorities, you took in these beliefs and made them your own.

But, did you know that many successful people have had similar beliefs programmed into them, and have gone on to prove them wrong?

In his early years, Albert Einstein was a poor student who was called mentally slow and unsociable. Abraham Lincoln’s teachers described him as a daydreamer who asked foolish questions. Thomas Edison was called a hopeless case when he was seven years old. His teacher described him as “addled” and said it would be useless for him to continue in school. All of these people came to realize that authority figures were not the determiners of their destiny. Rather, they themselves were. And there are thousands, if not millions, of these stories!

So, if you are being held back because of beliefs you got early in life, ask yourself whether it might be worthwhile to throw them out and replace them with others that will serve you better.

Lou Tice
The Pacific Institute

I don’t know about you, but this post gives me a great deal of hope and inspiration. If the likes of Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison can turn around their initial negativity in such a dramatic way as they did, then surely I, who doesn’t aspire to greatness or anything, can turn things around in a much lesser way. I know, although I frequently can’t see it, that I have some good and positive things about me. It’s too easy for me to remember the negative things, and even expand on them; I don’t want to think that way any more.

There’s a great quote from Mark Twain, “I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” That’s me; and it is time to change.

Another helpful post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle. If you think you might benefit from more, do please consider subscribing to the daily emails yourself; it doesn’t cost anything.