Beliefs, Fears, Habits and Future Success

Another week and our routines stay similar, steady as she goes.

But before you know it the year will be over. You will look back and review what was achieved and what can be done differently for the following year.

The normal assessment will be focused on ‘did we/I really think differently or do anything differently? What would we do differently next year?’ But we can still make changes to effect that, there is still time in this year to change the outcome. We can either act now or wait until it is too late.

It’s interesting, when we actually focus on the future and ask, ‘if I keep doing it the same way what will be my results or needed outcomes actually be?’ This is the reality of our life we wake up and we begin to think those 80,000 thoughts we have per day. The only problem is that they are usually the same thoughts that we thought yesterday, in reality we are thinking in the past.

Ground hog day can become the norm. Our present, current reality is shaped by our memory, our past experiences and our past beliefs, but mostly, shaped by our habits. That’s why we get the same or similar results in life. The past repeats itself.

Yet, when you really stop to evaluate this, you realise the past only exists in your mind - nowhere else. We wake up and memory comes charging in as a thought or a feeling/mood, where did it come from? Our memory.

What is a thought? We convert a wave of energy into matter, a neuro-physiological chemical response. The brain is the by-product of your past a cluster of patterns or combinations of neurological networks, clusters of neurons that work together as a community of neurons.

The neurons that fire together wire together. We call this our memory, your past thoughts repeated form thousands of synaptic connections, assembled into three dimensional neurological networks in your brain. It forms a map of your past, that can drive your future.

Emotions are simply the chemical residue from past experiences. When you experience a highly charged emotional event it is more deeply impressed in the brain, neurologically. When you have a thought of a memory you release certain biochemical signals.

Once you notice your you are feeling fear, you generate more thoughts equal to how your feeling. This then causes you to release more chemicals in the brain, to feel the way you have been thinking (fear) the moment you think fear, you continue to think more fearful thoughts. It is a cycle. This cycle of how you think and feel becomes your state of being. This conditions your mind and body to the past. 

Our body is then dictating to our mind, and we are unconsciously allowing this to happen. A habit is a set of automatic, unconscious thoughts and behaviours emotions that develop through repetition. The body is programmed to become the mind. Your moods then dictate your thoughts.

To change the future or lessening the impact of past we need to raise the awareness of consciously choosing our future intentions, vision and goals. We need to begin to rewire our brain to focus on these new thoughts and plans, as opposed to relying on our memory or past habits.

But it takes conscious awareness. Conscious awareness of your state. When I know my mind is really in charge, not my past programmed body, I gain control.

This is why Meditation is the game-changer- it removes past chemical residue and builds new patterns, quickly. Without consciously creating the new pattern over time, under stress the past will once again repeat itself and dictate our results and outcomes.

When the future possibilities are raised, what is your first response? Passion, belief, expectation, excitement or fear? Fear of what a repeated past behaviour resulted in.

Raising the future can increase discomfort potentially so it’s easier to ignore it. That’s why most people and organisational teams ignore it. Ignoring it does not change the reality of everyone’s thoughts about it in their daily thought process. It also doesn’t change the future outcomes.

The truth is that until there can be a vision that is accompanied with the right emotional, physical and mental state to support that intention, it’s difficult to get a breakthrough and to be able to achieve more than what has already been achieved in the past.

The real question is what really comes first? The belief or the results that fuel the belief? It’s a catch 22. Confidence is more than just a feeling or a mood, rather the intentionally (over time) nurturing of our more conscious intention and vision, which than changes the state. Belief is the ability to see that, which has not happened yet.

Why bring this up now? It’s easy to just be in survival mode, especially during the middle of the year, however passion is fuelled through being able to see desired future, so now is the time to start focusing on that.

Success has to be fuelled by emotion. Emotion is fuelled not by short term survival but by long term purpose and vision. Emotion is energy in motion. E-motion. Leaders must now be challenged to find another level of personal self-awareness that creates more belief and vision to inspire their groups and teams to go to another level.

Nothing stays the same - we have to keep searching for what is going to get ourselves and our teams to believe in and create, whatever is needed to achieve your goals and vision. That’s the reality, everyone wants it, but can we build a passion and belief enough to create the reality? I believe you can.

200% success in life: 100% inner and 100% outer.

Author: Steve Griffith

Steve is the Director and Founder of Griffith Consulting Group; Director and Founder of Sukhavati Ayurvedic Retreat & Spa, Bali; The Institute for Mindful Leadership, and Veda Wellness in Australia.

Steve is a motivational public speaker delivering over 200 conference and seminars a year. He has created The High Performance Leadership Coach Programs that provide transformational training and results in Leadership and Cultural Change for 100s of CEOs, Managers, and Staff at some of Australia’s leading Corporate and Government organisations. 

For more information about Steve, please visit: https://www.griffithconsulting.com/steve-griffith-speaker/