How do we form our beliefs?
We are good at recognising patterns, we are also good at ‘making up’ patterns when they are not necessarily there.
For example – something good might have happened last time we ordered a coffee from a new place, so we go back there in the hope that the good thing will happen again.
Perhaps the self-limiting beliefs are created when the opposite happens.
- We try something new
- Something ‘bad’ happens
- We tell ourselves that we are no good at that thing
- And we never try it again
This is fine when the bad thing could cause us injury.
But what if our self-limiting beliefs resulted in bad outcomes for others because we thought we were not able to learn a better way?
Another example – I had a friend once who always cut capsicums (bell peppers) by cutting around the top and pulling out the core. This is great when making stuffed peppers. When I want diced capsicum, I cut the pepper almost in half from the bottom and then when you pull the two halves apart, the core detaches from one half and is easy to pull out. My friend was amazed, she had never thought that it could be done another way.
I think that I am not good at artwork – Steve convinced me to keep trying and I found that I really enjoy ‘buttering’ paint onto a canvas with a palette knife. I even did a picture for an exhibition at work a couple of years ago. It helps to have someone urging us to ‘give it a go’.
How many things are we doing every day like these? Is there a better way? Can we try it more than once?