What we Believeby Thomas Sweet, MBA, CH

...can be so true. Countless studies have been done on the human mind in terms of psychology, spirituality, and many other schools of thought. Henry Ford was fond of saying that whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. Expanding this further, what we believe has a strong bearing on what we will become. Take the simple example of practicing a skill such as juggling. Maybe we are motivated to do such because not everyone else can. It is a well-known phenomenon of the human psyche to want to excel.

So we practice, possibly many hours a day, sometimes skipping days. Yet, even though we may get frustrated when we mess up; perhaps thinking that we are actually getting worse, we end up becoming very proficient. I use this example of juggling because I know first hand how tough the first three weeks were until I was able to juggle the three-ball cascade—the starting point of all good jugglers.

It becomes evident now that strictly positive thoughts all the time are certainly not required to get the job done. There is an unconscious side of us that represents as much as 90% of our ability to make change in our life. Fortunately, this makes it easier to steer our “destiny” so to speak. The practice, as mentioned before was a physical conditioning. The muscles get used to the repetition, and the mind then transitions from focusing on where each ball is in space to a more rhythmic approach.


This is a good observation because our life has a rhythm as well. We all are familiar with how we go through good and bad days, as we like to label them. If you try to define what's good and what's bad, or perhaps say why something is good or bad, you may unnecessarily be complicating the matter. Instead, seeing things happening from a more objective point of view can keep our emotions from getting flustered.


When we have our emotions in check then we can be more in tune with this rhythm or current of life. Rather than having it pull us around, we ride the waves, and actually have time to notice what is going on around us. This is the beginning of becoming aware of your surroundings. When we are aware of the outside, then we can become more aware within. This within is very important because it can objectify and reveal the 90% of our potential that is mostly unconscious.


Then it gets interesting because we begin to understand our beliefs. For instance, maybe you have a habit of eating all the food on your plate and do not know why. This may stem from a belief that when you were younger your parents would punish you if you didn't eat all your food. This belief had become hidden within the 90% of your potential, manifesting as a fact of life.


Now if we go back to the practice of juggling, and begin to understand that within our unconscious there may be hidden beliefs that are holding us back from progressing. What we believe, even unconsciously is what we will become. It is a good time as any to stop running on autopilot. When we begin to understand who we are through our beliefs, not only will our lives become much clearer, but we will have gained a multi-dimensional view of ourselves. With this understanding, we know that beliefs are not merely mental, but also physical, emotional, spiritual, astral, and project outward infinitely into the universe.