MINDSET: Identity Beliefs

Why the stories you tell yourself, about yourself can change your life!

Stories we tell ourselves? Yes, if you pay attention you’ll notice that every human being runs mental stories about the world, other people, the weather, the list goes on and on. This “self- talk” can be around gratitude or appreciation of the good things in your life and it can also be about YOU.

The problem is when we start labelling ourselves with negative stories. I’m sure you’ve heard other people say things like, “I’m not smart enough”, “I’m ugly”, “I’m not motivated”, and if you take note you’ll also see that you have a range of negative stories you tell yourself.

We call these Identity Beliefs and they can be summed up like this:

“I’m not [Fill in the blank] enough”!

The diagram below illustrates how all this works.

We have these negative identity beliefs around “I’m not [fill in the blank] enough.” They fuel our thoughts and perceptions.

These negative thoughts have an effect on our emotions and how we feel drives what we do – our actions.

The following quotes also show how powerful Identity Beliefs are:

“The strongest need in the human personality is to remain consistent with how we have defined ourselves.” Robert Cialdini

“You cannot perform consistently in a manner which is inconsistent with how you see yourself.” Zig Ziglar

 

The challenge is to help people to change these negative Identity Beliefs because when we hear someone say something negative about themselves we can tend to rush in and say, “No you are smart” and the typical reply is “No I’m not!”

Interrupting the Negative Identity Belief Pattern 

To change negative Identity Beliefs use your imagination and pretend that for one day you don’t have those negative thoughts and if you do you just don’t believe them:

• How would you think different?
• How would you feel different?
• How would you act different?

You can learn more about this and much more at www.studysamurai.com