Firstly, identify any limiting self-beliefs that you can easily discard. Get rid of them. Any labels or characterisations you have about yourself that are limiting or derogatory — discard them.
If you want to change, then you have to stop identifying with the past. You have to stop reinforcing old beliefs that are holding you back.
The fastest way to develop empowering beliefs is to take actions that provide proof for a belief. Then you can provide real-world evidence. And from this evidence, new inferences of meaning can form new beliefs, and these beliefs will be reinforced by positive emotions and feelings.
For example, if you think you are an incompetent public speaker, and you want to develop a belief that you are a competent public speaker, then you will have to actually go and do some public speaking and become more competent. Only then can you consolidate the new belief by providing contrary evidence to break the old belief.
Stretching yourself with challenges, is the key to developing empowering beliefs.
In the process of changing beliefs, there will often be a period of inner conflict due to two opposing belief patterns being held simultaneously. Your consciousness is in the process of deciding which one is true, and so you have to keep pushing and providing evidence until one belief becomes dominant. You will have to persevere and be disciplined.
For example, it is possible, that your first attempt at public speaking may not go as well as you hoped. But if you focus negatively on your performance, and give into your initial fears and apprehensions, you will collapse back into your old belief patterns. You will then not cope as well with future public speaking opportunities.
You avoid this by recognising your capabilities and what you are doing well. Give yourself credit for your efforts and focus on your strengths. Learn from your experiences and make changes as appropriate in order to improve and develop yourself.
Don’t worry about perfection. If you prove to yourself that you are resilient — that you are willing to keep moving forward whilst developing and challenging yourself — you will soon cross the threshold and form empowering and positive beliefs about yourself.
Another tip to change your belief patterns is through mental rehearsal and visualisation. By practising visualising yourself doing something in a confident and capable way, you will begin to change your neural pathways and will prime your brain to seek confirmation of these belief patterns. For example, if you mentally rehearse and visualise yourself making an excellent public speech, this will assist you to reinforce the belief pattern that you are an excellent public speaker.
When you are deciding what beliefs you want to instil and what beliefs you want to change — think about what is important to you. Think about the motivation for you wanting certain beliefs. And identify what the benefits of you having certain beliefs about yourself will be. What could you achieve if you held certain beliefs? Will you be held back from reaching your potential by your existing beliefs if you do not make changes?
And remember, you don’t need to have that many self-beliefs. It’s better to have a handful of super-charged beliefs than a sack full of half-hearted beliefs.
Much of the time, we only need to clear away our limiting beliefs, and then simply believe that we are capable of making progress in whatever we put our attention on.
Everyone is capable of fulfilling their potential, but they have to believe they are capable of fulfilling their potential. When you’ve made a concerted effort to consolidate empowering beliefs, you will feel confident in your ability to adapt to, learn from, and navigate the challenges of life.
© Adrian Connock
