Where Do Your Beliefs Come From?

Your thoughts, behavior and life experiences are run by your beliefs. Therefore, to improve the quality of your life in 2024 and beyond, it won’t come by a flurry of physical activity as most people have been taught to believe it will.

It will happen by adopting new beliefs. But how do you do that?

To get things started, let’s look at where our beliefs come from. For there is no better time than the start of a new year to let go of limiting beliefs that no longer serve you and begin making room for new and enhanced experiences to flow into your life.

The Step Most People Avoid

Becoming clear on the original source of your existing beliefs and how they direct your life is essential before you adopt new beliefs or even unpack your limiting beliefs.

This seems like a no-brainer, but it is the one step most people avoid while attempting to create new and improved experiences in their life.

As I am sure you have discovered along your life path, what most of us were fed as children about how life works is simply not true. That is why the new beliefs you will want to adopt in this new year will likely be at odds with the limiting beliefs you are letting go of.

Limiting beliefs are founded on the premise of scarcity and unworthiness.

Although you may have many positive beliefs about yourself, limiting beliefs tend to be the most dominant for they are the thoughts that represent the most fundamental perceptions you have about yourself.

The way limiting beliefs make their way into key areas of your life is that they frame a general perception of the world, which translates into you not having enough of what it takes to be loved, successful, happy, or fulfilled.

What About Now?

Like millions of others who are 60 and over, you likely inherited many of the same beliefs about who you can be or what you can achieve from previous generations.

In a different era, these beliefs about how life works may have made sense. But do they work in today’s world? And do they work for you based on where you are now in your life?

When you take time to do an honest review of your beliefs, it is quite common to recognize that for most of your life the beliefs you had about yourself can be traced back to what your parents, teachers, and authority figures expected you to be.

Like most of our generation, the ideal path you were likely told to take and stay on for love, success, safety, and happiness was predicated on pleasing others. This may provide temporary satisfaction, but more often than not it leads you into stress, resentment, and emotional depletion.

Granted, you may not have been aware of all of this back then, but what about now? The answer can be found in a famous quote by Maya Angelou, who said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”

Life Happens for You

The more you take time to honestly uncover the source of your beliefs and realize the power this has over your choices in life, the more you can confidently flip the script of your life on your terms.

A big part of this is transitioning out of any limiting belief that says life happens to you and instead, knowing life happens for you. This is because you are in control of what new beliefs you adopt and which ones you let go of.

To make such a transition requires going beneath the surface of your daily actions, behaviors, and experiences. This, however, is not where or how most people in our generation were taught to look for creating sustainable change.

You Are the Boss of Your Life

When you go beneath the surface of your daily life, it becomes apparent just how much your behaviors and reactions to life are predicated on unconscious limiting beliefs.

As much as these beliefs may have served you well earlier in life, they are not in your best interest now – at least not in the areas of your life you seek to improve.

Another thing you realize is that YOU are the BOSS of your life.

You are in control of creating new responses to life through new beliefs and behaviors, all of which produce the joy and sustainable fulfillment you have been seeking. At this point you start to see where you can make immediate, positive changes without requiring anyone else’s approval but your own.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What were some of the more influential limiting beliefs in your life that were passed down to you that you are now ready to let go of? What is something you can give yourself permission to do more of this year that would immediately improve the quality of your life? Is there a current limiting belief that is getting in the way of you doing this? If so, what is it?