Have you ever stopped to think who or what shapes your beliefs? My experience as a coach tells me “NO”, because I have asked this question thousands of times and I always get the same answer, and upon further contemplation, the client usually can come up with an answer but it does takes some thinking. SO what about you, where do your beliefs emanate from and who shapes them or perhaps something shapes them?
Today we all know that social media plays a big part in shaping our decisions; does it also shape our beliefs about things? Think about what is going on in the media today; who or what is shaping things? Does a person, a thing or a movement, or an idea change thinking, beliefs, cause actions or inaction to take place, laws to be passed or outrage to occur or something else?
Let’s dig a little deeper and see where our beliefs come from. I believe our beliefs come from five sources:
1. Our Experiences; When we experience something over and over again we gain as assurance that we can expect the outcome to continue to be the same, and over time this forms our belief. This belief informs our actions and our decisions and we live our lives based on these beliefs.
2. Faith; is something that we believe without seeing a tangible concrete item such as a person, or thing, but rather an emotional feeling which forms our belief in something. This belief in turns drives our decisions and actions and we live our lives out based on this faith based belief.
3. Fact; is a tangible thing or things that we can point to and say there it is and that is the result of “X” or “Y” and we can see it and know for sure. This knowing for sure is the thing that informs and where our belief is based in. From this belief we form all our decisions and actions and thus live our lives.
4. Assumptions; are those things we think we know inside our own heads but have no proof of and this is where we form our beliefs which are not based on facts, experience, reality, or experience. This false belief is the point from which we base our decisions and actions and the jumping off point where we live our lives.
5. Here Say; is the whispered opinions of others that we listen to and pass on as truths or half truths which play into our beliefs. We formulate our decisions and actions based on these beliefs from here say and live our lives.
What you “BELIEVE” is crucial to how you make decisions in your personal life and in your professional life. Think about all the decisions you made today at the office; how many of them were based on one of the five belief sources listed above.
How will those decision pan out for your company’s bottom line, on that big deal you have in the works, on that promotion you are seeking, on that next big order you are hoping to land, and so on?
What about you personal life? Have you said something or done something based on an assumption belief? Think about these things and rethink what your beliefs are in terms of the bigger picture of how you make your decisions.
