Are Your Belief Systems Dictating Your Success as a Female Entrepreneur?

Do you ever wonder why you haven’t seen the success you know you’re capable of creating?

Does it ever feel like there is some hidden force keeping you stuck and preventing your breakthrough?

Have you experienced quick spurts of victory, but can’t quite seem to hit sustainable momentum?

If so, you are not alone.  But you don’t have to stay in that place!

In today’s post, we’re going to cover:

• What belief systems are
• Where they come from and how they’re formed
• How we can turn this little universal law on its head
• The single most important secret to your future (sustainable!) success

What is a belief system?

            I heard the phrase “belief system” about fifteen years ago, and it’s become one of those little powerhouse information explosions that has totally changed my viewpoint on life.  A quick Google search will tell you that your belief system is the actual set of precepts from which you live your daily life – those that govern your thoughts, words, and actions. 

But, what does that mean exactly? 

It means that your belief system defines you and dictates the results of your life on this earth. 

The amazing thing is that the overwhelming majority of people on this planet will never even be remotely aware of this phenomenon that controls their life and success.

            How is this possible? 

In my opinion, there are two main reasons:

1. It’s not formally taught in society.

This is another one of those critically important, mind-blowing life skills that isn’t taught through formal education systems.  Like financial savvy, emotional management, long-range life planning, and a solutions-oriented approach to life, unless one makes a conscious decision to embark on a personal development journey, it is extremely rare that this skill will ever be added to one’s resume.

2. We can’t see them.

Because our belief systems are so ingrained into who we are, they are actually “invisible” to us.  For example, I once heard it described this way: Just as fish never stop to process the fact that they are swimming through water and birds don’t consider the fact that they are flying through air, we are not aware of how our belief systems form our personal version of reality. 

But that doesn’t change the fact that fish do swim in water, birds do fly through the air, and our belief systems do make us who we are.

            Our belief systems are extremely strong, because we’ve unknowingly spent an entire lifetime creating and reinforcing them. 

We hold these subconscious beliefs on every single area of life: religion and spiritual life, family, career, personal potential, finances, physical health, and how we interact within our social circles and community. 

Whether we operate in abundance or scarcity is based on our belief systems.  If we take calculated risks or live in fear (masked by a blanket of false security) stems from our belief systems.  Whether we continue to learn, grow, and expand ourselves throughout adulthood… we continue a quest for new challenges, accomplishments, and success…or whether we remain focused on consumption or focus instead on giving back…all of these different life paths are very literally mandated by our belief systems.

And most of our belief systems relate to our sense of Self.

From childhood, our identity and sense of Self become built into us like hardware…instead of the software they are.  Names, birth certificate, driver’s license, report cards, GPA, resume, job titles, social media profiles, numbers of friends, timelines and memories that pop up very regularly to remind us who we are, medical records, social status. 

Over time, our sense of Self and identity becomes very strong and defined.  Then, we become a collective group, society, made up of millions of individuals who think “this is just who I am”.  I cannot change.  But how did those beliefs form in the first place?

Where do belief systems come from?

Most of our beliefs are formed in childhood or adolescence and then strengthened by our choices throughout life.  The ironic thing is that those ongoing choices we continually make are governed by our beliefs, so if the cycle is never broken, we spend our entire lifetime traveling in circles of perpetuating those beliefs. 

To really explain this phenomenon, let me share two overly simplified examples. 

First, let’s say some careless adult tells you as a child that you’ll never amount to anything and you internalize that comment as a belief. 

Throughout your school-aged years you then make decisions based on that belief, which further reinforce that result as a reality in your life.  You barely make it through graduation, and college isn’t even on the radar for you.  Why?  Because you’ll “never amount to anything”. 

Instead, you slip into a string of low-paying, unfulfilling jobs, moving around all the time to juggle late rent payments and utilities being cut off.  You struggle with one bad relationship after another because you project your low self-esteem onto everyone else in your life, and just whenever you think you may get a break, something “happens” to keep you stuck right where you are.

           

On the flip side, let’s say that as a child you were told that you’re an amazing, gifted and talented person who has the ability to become anything you set your mind to.

  Now, you internalize that comment as a belief and spend the rest of your life making decisions and taking action to perpetuate that statement as your own personal reality.  You seek out challenges and activities that stretch you, work and study hard, excel in school and extra-curricular activities, and finish both high school and college at the top of your class.  You design and create an amazing career and find it hard to settle for anything mediocre in your life. 

The “you” in both situations at childhood was exactly the same.  But based on the belief you internalized, your life took on a very different shape.  Without interference along the way, that one belief defined your result.

At this point, you might be thinking, “Ok, great.  So now I’m aware of how and why I’m struggling.  But what can I do about it?  Is there a way to fix it?!”

The good news is YES! 

We can actually harness this power into our secret weapon!

How we can turn this little universal law on its head and make it work for us instead of against us?

            Well, we can’t change a law of the universe, and we don’t need to.  All we need to do is figure out how to get it to work for us, instead of against us.

And, believe it or not, that’s actually the easy part.

You can actually recode your belief systems to help you create exactly what you want in life!

I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, ‘knowing is half the battle’.  Well, in this situation, knowing is more than half the battle.  Probably 90% of it!

Once we understand how these laws of belief systems work, we can actually harness their power, go back to the root of these beliefs, shine the light on them, expose them, and let them go.  Then, we can very easily create new beliefs to replace the old ones in every single area of life.

Can you see how this phenomenon directly affects your personal, professional, and financial situation as well? 

Your beliefs control every area of your life.

We all know that money isn’t everything and it won’t buy happiness.  But it does buy you choices in life, and it is the means by which you can afford the life of your dreams for your family.  I hope you’ll take this as a challenge to address your own personal beliefs about money. 

The way you think and feel about money will be the filter on how you process everything related to money for your entire life.  Whether or not you embrace the pursuit of abundance, whether you sabotage yourself when it comes to creating success, whether you feel guilty and shameful or free to pursue abundance…this is all wrapped up into your belief system about money.

Whether you create abundant success in your business and life or settle for mediocrity and complacency is directly correlated to your deep-rooted beliefs around abundance, success, and self-worth.

But here’s the catch. 

All of this information is pointless and worthless if we’re not able to replace those old, unhealthy beliefs.

So, how do we do that?  Is there a trick?  A secret?

I’m glad you asked.

Yes, there is a secret. 

A secret so simple it’s stupid.

The secret to your success

Here is the single most important secret to your future (and sustainable!) success:

We have been programmed by society to thing that things can’t change…we can’t change. 

That simply isn’t true.

Your current life and worldview are nothing more than a creation of the mind built up from programming and beliefs.

THESE ARE NOT YOU:

None of these things are you.

I have a mentor that says, ‘Self is nothing but an illusion from mental programming’.  You can change it ANYTIME you want…as often as you want!

Here’s the cycle of how our life experiences program us: action, reaction, belief, reality.  Action, reaction, belief, reality.  The cycle continues on an automatic loop our entire life if we don’t consciously intervene.

If I go back and choose a new reaction to some old life experience, then I can form a new belief around that circumstance which will then produce a new reality.

In order for me to literally live out loud with no fear or guilt or hesitation about what “other people” think of me, I had to come to terms with my own personal beliefs in the areas of money, success, abundance, relationships, and overall quality of life. 

For example, if you believe:

• Money is the root of all evil
• Money doesn’t grow on trees
• It takes money to make money
• There’s not enough to go around
• Scarcity, poverty and lack are just a way of life
• All people who have money must be mean, evil, arrogant, or wasteful
• In order to be a Godly person and good servant you must be poor

All of those thoughts are beliefs that will dictate your life’s approach to money, success and the creation of abundance!  This dictates every other area of your life as well, because everything on earth has a price tag in some form or fashion.

As I first became aware of this concept, it exploded into my life as a catalyst that completely changed the potential of my future.  I encourage you to carve out some time to identify any limiting beliefs that may currently be serving as a lid on your life. 

Remember, awareness is most of the battle.  Once you’ve identified those unhealthy belief systems, you can begin to rewrite them.  To paraphrase the words of success author T. Harv Eker, the only way to change your outer world permanently is to first change your inner world.  There must first come a massive change on the inside of who you are and how you think.  

Start with changing your true beliefs.

When you change your true beliefs on the inside, that will carry to the outside and begin to transform your own personal reality.

As we wrap up today, let me throw out one other thought as a quick challenge to you.  Take a look at your daily vocabulary and ask yourself if the “casual” words coming out of your mouth are reinforcing your own limiting belief systems, or worse…perhaps even helping to form the limiting beliefs of an impressionable young person within your realm of influence. 

How many times a day do you say some version of “we’re too busy, we don’t have time, hurry up, we can’t afford it, or we don’t have money for that”?  All of those statements are victim’s-mentality thoughts that will breed a belief of scarcity into the mindset of a child who grows up hearing them all the time.  How might your own mindset change if you just stopped allowing those phrases to escape your lips? 

Small adjustments…big changes

What if you just made a slight adjustment and used phrases like, “We’re choosing to invest our time and resources into other areas right now.”  As cheesy as it may sound, that one slight shift will begin to feed your subconscious with the power of choice over a limited-resources, reactionary mindset.  It will also form a belief of choice into your children, instead a belief of “there’s never enough to go around”.

Honestly, this post could be titled, “How your *unconscious* belief systems are most definitely dictating your success *or lack thereof* as an entrepreneur!!”

And lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that because most people aren’t aware of their belief systems, most people automatically develop beliefs affiliated with the status quo.  It’s merely a result of human nature.  If we don’t want the results of status quo, we must learn to think differently and develop different belief systems. 

Stuck in a rut of reactionary living, most people are completely oblivious to what their apathy, scarcity mindset, and “groupthink” mentality are costing them.  That’s why most people dream big dreams, but live paycheck to paycheck. 

So, if we want to stop living like most people, we’ve got to stop thinking and acting like most people.  Investigate your own internal belief systems and pay attention to how they are affecting your external reality.  Is it time to make some changes? 

Will it happen overnight? No. Does it take a lot of work? Yes. Change is rarely easy, but I can promise you…this one will be worth it!

All my love,

Chaya