Purposeful Growth

If you live in the United States and drive an automobile you:

• Drive on the right side of the road on two-way streets
• Stop for a red light and go on a green light
• Know traffic lights generally have the red light on top, the green on the bottom
• Know traffic lights normally hang from wires overhead in the middle of intersections
• Give pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks

You do these and more when you drive without even thinking about these regulations; you can talk on a cell phone, drink from a cup, listen to the radio, and chat with a passenger while driving. If you’re an experienced driver these regulations of driving are so familiar they’re now resident in your subconscious.

Consider going to work if you were forced to think about each driving move you had to make. It would be exhausting, not to mention the irritation you’d cause other drivers by your halting movements. Beliefs are like the traffic regulations you’ve lived with so long they’ve been relegated to the subconscious. Just as you can drive a familiar route and barely recall the drive after your arrival, so do you form opinions, take actions, and make decisions every day without conscious awareness. Your beliefs stimulate these actions directly from your subconscious.

You do it, I do it, everyone does it. Without subconscious belief stimulating your actions, a simple discussion with your spouse or boss might go on forever as you consciously weight each word you choose and each thought you verbalize. Road rage would move to your kitchen and the aisles of your work place.

If you’re not convinced that invisible beliefs affect your behavior, read this sentence out loud:

President Bush is doing a terrific job.

Did you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? Did you have a strong physical reaction and some following self talk either supporting or refuting the statement? Were you even able to say it out loud?

Unless you felt absolutely nothing when reading the sentence, if you read it with the same emotion you might use saying that today is Friday, you have beliefs about President Bush, war, politics, terrorism, gay rights, and other issues making the political headlines.

The strong reaction you had was an automatic trigger stimulated by the beliefs you hold on relevant issues of the Presidency. If I was speaking with you and spoke that sentence you probably would have responded without even thinking.

Though our behaviors are nearly automatic in response to our beliefs, that doesn’t mean we’re immune from new awareness and control. Beliefs are ideas we’ve cemented in place. Cement can be broken.

Do you ever shake your head in bewilderment at something you’ve done or said, wondering “where did that come from?”

Does someone who cares about you sometimes point out your strong reaction to a situation, wondering why you feel so strongly and why that situation pushes your “hot button?”

If so, you’ll want to join our Beliefs and Behavior Telecoach Discussion on August 16th at 7 PM ET. Our past Telecoach Discussions have been spirited, interesting, and insightful; this one promises the same. Use this opportunity to safely reflect on fundamental beliefs you hold in your subconscious–beliefs deep-rooted in the past that may or may not be serving you today.

Now save up to 40% with new multi-Discussion packages just introduced on the registration page.

Register Here