October 18--Powerful Beliefs

Believe you can, and you can.  Belief is one of the most powerful
of all problem dissolvers.  When you believe that a difficulty can be
overcome, you are more than halfway to victory over it already.

Norman Vincent Peale

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Today's Meditation:

I've spent much of my life believing that things couldn't be changed, that things are the way they are and the there are simply unavoidable problems and obstacles that come up in life and slam us to the ground, forcing us to do little more than try to deal with the problems--but certainly not thrive and do well.

It took me a very long time to learn that my beliefs helped to cause this sort of thing to happen.  I believed something negative would happen, and therefore it did:  a simple cause-and-effect relationship that nobody had ever taught me anything about.  And because they would happen, they would reinforce my beliefs, which would then lead to. . . well, you know.

There's a big difference between believing in limitations and impossibilities and believing in possibilities and potential.  When we believe in the possibilities, then we approach them as if they can be accomplished, and it's that approach that allows us to actually get them done.  Many of the difficulties in our lives hang on because we believe in them and we believe in their power to harm us and to be problematic to us, whereas they could be overcome quite effectively--if perhaps not extremely simply--if we were simply to believe that we can overcome them.

One of the things that separates Olympic and professional athletes from others is the way that they believe that they can do whatever they try to do--they know it may take a lot of work to get to the point at which they can, but since they do believe, they're willing to put forth the work necessary to accomplish their goals.

Because this topic isn't one of the things that we teach in our schools or that most of our parents have passed down to us, most of us tend either not to know the power of our beliefs or not to believe just how powerful they are.  We can overcome that deficiency, though, by changing what we believe and living as if we do believe the things that will make our lives much more positive than they are when we believe the negatives.

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Questions to consider:

How have your beliefs in life originated, and how have they developed?

Why does no one teach us about the power of our beliefs?

What kinds of things might you accomplish if you truly believe that you can?

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For further thought:

As our beliefs actually change,
so do our experiences.

Carol Sheffield




More on beliefs.