What is Your Belief Window?

The Belief Window

The concept of "belief window" has popularized by time management and productivity expert Hyrum Smith. He worked with Stephen Covey of the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" fame.

The concept is fairly easy - we all have belief windows that affect how we see the world .

Any belief that drives behavior that does not meet your basic needs is an incorrect belief for you.

It is an interesting concept for what it is - and what it is not.

Often, beliefs may be interpretations of what we experience in life which may or may not be true.

Some beliefs that adversely affect our basic needs might be,

• I am not an addict; I can quit at any time,
• I can't stop smoking
• I have lung cancer; I might as well keep on smoking
• My parents will love me no matter what I do,
• I need to work at this job to pay my bills,
• My self-worth is determined by what I have, or the job I have, or the praise I receive from others,
• Society is corrupt, most people are in it for themselves (of course, I am not),
• Rich people got that way because they are dishonest and take advantage

I'm sure you can think of many more.

Belief Gap

The belief gap is the distance betwen your beliefs, and the beliefs which will help you achieve your goals.

An example I run into is a man who is dismissive their wife - and wonders why their relationship is poor.

Others are,

• I don't need to exercise - but I get so short of breath when I just walk,
• I can't stop smoking - but I can't breathe
• I am always tired - but I can't get to bed early at night
• My knees hurt all the time - but I can't lose weight
• I can't lose weight - but I have diabetes

Again, I'm sure you can think of others. There is a problem between what somebody believes (can't stop smoking) and something that is holding them back (I can't breathe).

Belief and WA

One post today showed that there have been two million people who looked at WA; about 13% became Premium members. That means fully 87% did not.

For many, it is a belief gap that is getting in the way of financial success.

Many believe,

• WA is a scam,
• I can't do this,
• It takes too long,
• I don't have the ability
• It costs too much,
• I can do better with that program offering wealth "secrets"

and likely a host of others.

It is likely that most of the 87% who never joined Premium held one or more of these beliefs that adversely affected their financial future.

Often, it is hard to determine whether our beliefs are in error; it's usually better to go at this the other way. If we are not developing the way you want, not achieving our goals, there is probably a belief gap somewhere.

It is I believe a useful concept to help see where we might do better this coming year of change. It works by identifying those areas where we are making little progress and figure out if there is some belief that is holding us back.

Usually, that is why it is necessary to climb out of our comfort zone to do great things.

A new decade is a ime for new beliefs!

Dave.