How your beliefs drive your habits

Change your beliefs, change your habits

Before you think about the new habits you want, think about the old beliefs you have now.

If you try to change a habit without checking your beliefs, then it will be much harder to make that change permanent. 

You might change a habit for a short time. You might get up in the morning and go to the gym for a week or two. 

You might start eating healthy for a little while, but if your underlying beliefs don’t change, then the new habit won’t last. 

Our habits always snap back into alignment with our beliefs.

Why?

That’s because our beliefs affect our habits. And our brains will always seek alignment between our beliefs and our habits.

Your subconscious will produce results in your life that are congruent with what you believe. In a weird way, it’s a way of keeping you happy, because our brains don’t like conflict.

Because your brain wants to keep you happy, it’s going to reduce any conflict between what you believe and how you act. 

So if you want to act differently, or form new habits, then get your beliefs in order, because it’s your subconscious that drives behavior.

What are beliefs?

Beliefs are simply the things you tell yourself. About yourself, about how the world works, and others. 

Limiting beliefs

What you believe about yourself is one of the main influences on your behavior. If you believe something negative about yourself, then it’s going to limit your ability to form new habits.

“I’m lazy.”

That’s why you’re going to get up and go to the gym every morning. Beginning in January, you’re gonna hit the weights at 6 am. 

And you probably will for a while. But when it gets hard, then your habits will snap back to normal if your beliefs haven’t changed.

If you want to change your behavior, change your beliefs first.

If you still think you’re lazy, then you’re only forcing yourself. And willpower isn’t enough. 

Change what you believe about yourself if you want to change habits. 

It’s about self-efficacy

Self-efficacy just means that you believe you can do it. 

If you’re lazy, then that’s going to influence your behavior.

If you think you’re bad with money, then this is going to affect your ability to make money. 

If you think other people don’t like you, then this will affect how you act around others. 

And on and on and on.

How to change this?

This doesn’t mean that you’re wrong about the new habit you want to form.

Maybe you do want to work out more and be healthier. Or you want to make more money. Or more friends. Or get in a relationship. 

But if the foundation of that desire is a negative belief about yourself, then the changes you make will only be surface changes. And your efforts to change will just snap back to what you really believe.

Identify the new behavior that you want and the belief associated with that new behavior.

Start small 

Your limiting beliefs might be there because you think there is evidence of it. 

You think you’re lazy because you haven’t worked out in six months. Give yourself new evidence and start telling a new story.

Did you work out today? You’re someone who works out and takes their health seriously. 

You need to make more money, because you think you’ve wasted a lot of money the past year. Start saving and finding new ways to generate income and each step of the way, tell yourself that you’re someone who is good with money.

It might feel silly to give yourself positive affirmation, but your subconscious works off of what your conscious mind feeds it.

If you consciously keep telling yourself that you’re a healthy person, that you can do it, etc. then your subconscious will get the message, and it will start producing results.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to work on the habit, but you do have to work consistently on the belief if you want the habit to form. 

Identify the habit you want. What is the negative belief around that habit? Form a new positive belief. Consciously repeat this new belief to yourself consistently and as you act out the new habit. 

Eventually, this becomes your new belief, and your new habit will form around it for the long term.

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