Do You Believe?

This article was written for Can-Fit-Pro while I watched the 2010 Winter Olympics on CTV.

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution and not kept it? Have you set a goal at New Year that you gave up on, or had a dream that hasn’t come true, yet? If this is you, read on. Pam Rigden offers an inspirational perspective on how believing in yourself is the key to success.

 If you have been watching TV lately you will probably have seen the CTV ‘I Believe’ advertisements for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. “Belief ”, the campaign imbues, “is the Cornerstone of our Dreams”.

It doesn’t take a Sports Psychologist to grasp the concept – self belief is fundamental to athletic performance. Athletes have to believe in their potential to perform at their best. They have to believe that winning is a possibility. For some, winning Gold becomes a non-negotiable, so strong is their belief.

Why is this important? Because in the infamous words of Henry Ford

Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you are right.

When the World’s greatest performers are separated by 0.01 of a second there is no room for self doubt.

But what about the rest of us mere mortals, not competing on the Canadian equivalent of Mount Olympus this February – what role does belief play in our daily lives?

In William Butler’s beautiful poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, Butler imbues the reader to

“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”

The tragedy is that, more often than not, we tread all over our own dreams with our doubts. We simply don’t believe in ourselves and what we are capable of.

You see, ‘Belief’ truly ‘is the Cornerstone of our Dreams’, and, if at your foundation is the limiting belief ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I don’t deserve it’ it really doesn’t matter how many goals you set, or how many dreams you have, you will be unlikely to follow through. After all, you can always write the book - next year; you can always apply to be a Presenter – next year.

If this is you, you are not alone. The Road Less Travelled, by psychiatrist M Scott Peck, is the best selling self-help book of all time, with over 10 million copies sold, because it opens with the now infamous and, in my opinion, dream crushing statement

‘Life is difficult.’

Clearly this line has resonated with millions of people around the world since its publication in 1978. And yet the notion that ‘Life is difficult’ is just a belief – the author’s perspective - and you can choose to believe it, and all that goes with it, or not. You can, if you prefer, choose to believe something that offers more potential, such as ‘Life is what you make it’, or you could even choose to believe that Life is Wonderful, Abundant, a Blessing…..fill in the BLANK.

The great thing about that little book, that 2006 phenomena that was/is ‘The Secret’ is that it brought to popular consciousness an idea that NLP has promoted for years – that you get back what you put out there AKA The Law of Attraction. Now, the deal is that The L of A applies to your thought too, and so, once you have thought it – it is out there, and the Universe will deliver. In other words, when you choose to focus on Life is difficult for example, guess what you get back

The point is, it’s time to tread carefully - think about the Universe as a restaurant - start listening in to your own internal dialogue, and next time you catch yourself ordering a main of ‘I’m not good enough’, with a portion of ‘I don’t deserve it’ on the side, you might want to cancel the order, literally, shout out loud – CANCEL, CANCEL, CLEAR.

It’s time to tread carefully and see your limiting beliefs for what they are – thoughts that no longer have a place in your life – and consign them to the Museum of Old Beliefs. You used to believe in Santa Claus didn’t you – and now you know that that belief is no longer true. You can file ‘I’m not good enough’ and ‘I don’t deserve it’ in the same place – you used to believe them, and now you know they are no longer true. It’s up to you what you want to believe about the world and its inhabitants; you can choose what you want to believe about who you are and what you are capable of.

It is time to tread carefully and accept responsibility for what you have created with your thoughts, and the decisions you have made. It is only when you are at Cause rather than at Effect, (otherwise know as Victim Mentality – there’s nothing I can do about it – and Blame Frame – as in, it’s somebody else’s fault); it is only when you actually climb back into the driving seat of your own life that you will be empowered.

It’s time to tread carefully and recognize that you are responsible for what is present and what is missing in your life – and if you’re not happy with what you have created it is time to do some serious soul searching, and by that I mean go search for your soul, the essence of who you are – the person you are when you allow yourself to just be....….and when you find that space ask yourself these fundamental questions ‘Who am I becoming?’ and ‘Who was I all along?’ (before you took on any limiting beliefs).When you re-connect with your soul in this way you will find the personal strength and motivation you need to make your dreams come true. 

Finally, I would like to leave you with my favorite quote of 2009

You can choose to reside in a place of fear, a place where you doubt who you are and what you are capable of becoming OR you can choose to believe in the best version of yourself.

Detective Mac Taylor, CSI New York

You never know where you might find inspiration!

I look forward to hearing how you succeed in making 2010 your most rewarding and fulfilling year to date. 

What are beliefs?

Our beliefs are thought processes – thoughts about what we hold to be true, they are true for us, and because they are true for us we think and behave in ways that support them, even when they don’t support us. Beliefs either support or hinder us. We have beliefs about the world we live in, the people in it, about ourselves and what we are capable of.