Before you can build a structure, you must have a complete survey performed. How else are you going to find the best location for your dream home or your new office? The same is true for your life. Think back to the story about the roast in an earlier post. If something as simple as cutting off the ends of a roast to fit in a pan can be passed down from generation to generation, then can you imagine what else can be misconstrued? How many outdated paradigms do you have in your life? Are you building your house on sand because you failed to do a survey?
Let’s say, for example, you grew up in home where your parents lived paycheck to paycheck. Your parents’ arguments and feelings of never having enough were ingrained in you and still haunt you today. As a child, you remember saying to yourself, “There is no way I’m going to live this way. When I grow up I’m going to be rich.” Fast forward twenty-five years: you want to create a family budget in order to build an emergency expense fund because you’re tired of scrambling for money every time your air conditioner breaks or you need a new set of tires. You tell yourself, “This time it is going to be different. I’m going to save ten percent of every paycheck.” The first two months you did exactly as planned and carefully set aside that ten percent. The third month, however, was not so good; with the money you did save, you decided to buy a new flat screen TV for the basement. Now, you’re back in the same spending habits with no emergency fund, and you’re upset with yourself. How much of an effect do you think your upbringing had to do with this scenario?
With the example above, we see that it can be a difficult process to change habitual thinking patterns that have been instilled since our childhood. More often than not, people are unhappy and lack fulfillment because they don’t know how to unlearn their outdated beliefs. In some cases, they may not even understand what the problem is. To break free from these self-sabotaging thought processes, we have to take an internal survey and question everything we’ve been taught. As small children, the thoughts of our parents, teachers, ministers, and any other influential people became our own. During our youth, we looked to those closest to us for guidance, and, as a result, we took on their beliefs. Unfortunately, many times the majority of these thoughts are limiting, in that they prevent us from finding what truly makes us happy. These distorted thoughts sabotage our own happiness because we’re living according to someone else’s values and opinions. More importantly, however, we have to consider who else our distorted thoughts are affecting: our children.
Post a comment about a limiting belief that you have that you are committed to change.
