You have beliefs about yourself, your skills, your value, your experiences and so on.  You also have beliefs about others, what they think, how they operate, what they desire, how to relate to them, and so on.  You have beliefs about many other things such as your work, hobbies, fun, politics, crime, religion, education, environment, time, history, future, personality, change, and so on.

The beliefs you have, which are different to other people’s beliefs are the ones you operate from.  You use them as a map to navigate the territory.  Beliefs are mental maps that govern our life, emotions, health, skills, attitudes and daily life experiences.

Anthony Robbins defines a belief as ‘Any guiding principle, dictum, faith, or passion  that can provide meaning and direction in life.’  Therefore, beliefs are assumptions and presuppositions we have about ourselves, others and the world in general.  Our beliefs give us our unique view of the world.

Beliefs are derived from specific cultural settings are can be shared by others in our family and chosen social circles. They are often invisible and we take them for granted and accept them as being true.  It’s usually only when we encounter someone who has a different set of beliefs that we become aware of our own.

Some beliefs are emotionless. You have taken there for granted and never questioned or connected with the belief.  You believe the sun will rise and set each day. You know this to be true and it’s no big deal, because that is the way it is.

Some beliefs are judgements. You judge things about the way they should be.  These judgements imply an evaluation and are based on your values.  Values are a individual, private and personal beliefs about what is most important to an individual.  Values are belief systems about what is right, wrong, good or bad.  They are guiding principles by which people live their lives.  They also shape the experiences we look for in life and also those which we avoid.  Core beliefs and values form the basis of our identity and our personality.

The Power of Beliefs
A great example of the power of beliefs is the Placebo Effect.  Placebos are medications that contain sugar or starch but have no active medicinal agents.  Research has demonstrated for my years that patients who are given placebos believe them to be a therapeutic treatment for a specific ailment and do actually get well. The success rate has been staggering and placebos have been useful for up to 80% in many researched cases.

Such studies show clearly that our beliefs can determine how things will turn out.
Believing something, whether through instructions or through our thoughts, sends a psycho -neurological message through your entire mind/body system that makes it happen.

Where do beliefs and values come from?
Beliefs and values are not innate.   We develop them as we evolve and try to make sense of the world. The key factors that influence the creation of our beliefs and values are:

• the culture we grew up in
• feedback from others
• peer groups
• imprinted experiences up until the age of seven
• repetitive experiences
• role modes
• media

Belief change
Beliefs and values are not fixed although we often act as if they are facts that have been carved in stone. In reality, they are only our perceptions.  They guide us in our thinking and our behaviours and sometimes we hang on to some of them for far to long, particularly if they are limiting our growth. They also change naturally over time as we mature and learn to see the world differently.

A quick exercise to demonstrate how beliefs change is to think of five things you used to believe and don’t now.  What happened to change your mind?

If you are interested to find out more about how beliefs can be changed sign up for my 7 Keys to Life Mastery video series.

Understanding beliefs and values is a post from: Lorrah Berg

Whatever your dreams are, whatever you desire, take the time to focus on them today and never give up!

There are times in our life when we think ‘its all too hard’ but this is the time to draw on the strength and courage that you  know is inside of you and keep going. Go on to achieve your desires.  Whether it is to have that difficult conversation with someone, a task you have been putting off or a major change you have been wanting to make for a long time, go on to overcome the challenge and breakthrough to your desires.

Yes, sometimes we have to take another path, another direction and as long as you keep your vision in mind and take some small steps YOU WILL MAKE IT!

Click on play and enjoy this beautiful short video as a reminder to NEVER GIVE UP!

Whatever you do today, make sure you spend some time focusing on your dreams!

Never giving up is a post from: Lorrah Berg

‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them’.

What does mindset really mean and why should you concern yourself with your own mindset?

Mindset is how you think about yourself and your life. Whether we are aware of it or not, everyone keeps a running account of what’s happening to them, what it all means, what impact it has on them and others and what they should or shouldn’t do about a situation. Our minds are constantly monitoring and interpreting, that’s the way life is and how we make sense of the world and what we do. However, often the interpretation gets skewed. Some people put more extreme interpretations on events and then react with exaggerated feelings of anger, superiority, anxiety, depression, or may even withdraw from others.

Mindset is comprised of the beliefs, values, fears, judgments, rules and ideas that you hold. A healthy mindset or a growth mindset is a good indicator of a person’s ability to respond to life challenges. What’s in your mindset determines your attitude and approach to life and also your energy and vitality level. The inner (mindset) game dictates the outer (results) game.

For example, if I approach a difficult situation with a specific outcome in mind and have an ‘anything is possible’ mindset then this will influence my results. My interactions would demonstrate a willingness and positive attitude to communication and my energy level would be congruent with my desired outcome. Whereas with a ‘not all things are possible, let’s wait and see’ mindset allows your mind to be unfocused, see negative consequences and you are more likely to feel your energy and vitality draining.

Thoughts drive actions and actions achieve results. How you think dictates how you live your life. Mindset is what we choose to operate with. Mindset can be changed, modified or altered and you can choose to be who you want to be simply by thinking from a particular perspective.

Having a positive mindset is having a positive approach to life and the best way to achieve this is by focusing on what you do want rather than what you don’t want. People with a growth mindset believe that resilience; hard work, effort and determination contribute towards success and achievement. They believe that their basic qualities such as intelligence or talent can be fostered and developed. One of the results of a growth mindset is a love or learning and an enjoyment of challenge, an appetite to self reflect learn and develop oneself to achieve fulfillment.

7 Steps to creating a healthy mindset

1. Recognise the need or desire to have a healthy mindset in order to learn and develop
2. Examine your feelings and reactions to situations and be aware of these
3. Make a personal commitment to adopt a healthy mindset and observe triggers that challenge ‘old’ patterns and behaviours
4. Write a list of affirmations that support a healthy growth mindset
5. Read or listen to your affirmations daily
6. Check in with yourself at least weekly to see how you are changing
7. Reward yourself for progress

Mindset, why it’s important and how to use it is a post from: Lorrah Berg

After talking with a client recently about goal setting we found that the reason she was procrastinating about taking action to achieve certain goals was because she really didn’t feel connected to them. As we explored this aspect of her further we found that she had wanted (unconsciously) to get recognition from her parents and some of the goals she had been setting was to achieve this recognition. No wonder she was procrastinating! The goal wasn’t really what she wanted for herself and so she had no real motivation to take any action steps towards achieving it.

I often see this happening when people are procrastinating. They haven’t set their goals in alignment with their values. Often they’re not clear about their values because they haven’t taken the time to really consider what they want and question if they are prepared to put in a huge effort to achieve them.

I encourage everyone to set goals.  If you are new to goal setting then begin with small goals and over time set bigger ones. As you begin to take action steps towards achieving your goals you will feel a sense of challenge, excitement and satisfaction. It’s ideal to have goals that will stretch you into expanding your awareness or knowledge  so you will have a strong sense of achievement when you realise your goal.  Furthermore, goal setting and goal achievement will open you up to reaching your full potential.

I also suggest that you take time to identify your values first and align your goals to your values. Alternatively change your values to align with the goals you want to achieve.  The best advice you will ever get on success and leading is to align your goals and values.  What I mean here is if you value spending money on lots of fun activities, socializing a lot and dining at high end restaurants then set goals that will support these activities. However, if you want to develop a savings plan and long term wealth creation then you will need to value this and set goals associated with budgeting, saving and educating yourself about wealth creation. In a nutshell, if you don’t have a high value on something it will be futile to expect to achieve associated goals because you won’t be motivated or disciplined to undertake the actions required to achieve them and may end up feeling disappointed and not setting any goals at all. In most cases, successful people know what they value about their family, career, relationships, education, material possessions and financial aspects of life and define important goals in each of those areas. Balance is the key when you want quality of life over quantity.

‘Success lies in the ability to clearly define your objectives according to your personal values.’

Now let’s look at what you stand for? Take a minute to define your personal values.  What drives you to get out of bed each day to accomplish your goals? Is it your contribution to your family, a driving passion to help other people, to develop new skills, or to travel the world anD experience life in different cultures?  Of course, you will probably want to include personal characteristics such as loyalty, honesty, thoughtfulness, tolerance or generosity within your values.
In order to be truly happy in your personal life it is important to feel that what you do on a daily basis makes sense to you in terms of your values. For most people working hard toward their goals is important but even more important is   being true to who they are as a person so they become the person they want to be in their lifetime.
When you align your goals and values, you tap into a power that propels you forward to achievement and you will never regret where you are in life. You’ll know how you want to live your life and you’ll be committed to undertaking the necessary actions and you won’t exhaust your energy in areas that compromise your values.
Go ahead now and write a list of what you value in the following 7 areas of life and then write down your goals for each of these areas and start developing your life plan.

1. Spiritual
2. Financial
3. Family
4. Mental Knowledge
5. Career/ Business
6. Social
7. Physical Health & Wellbeing

Are you procrastinating about taking action steps toward your goals? is a post from: Lorrah Berg

‘We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.’ – C. Day Lewis

‘Journal writing is a voyage to the interior’ – Christina Baldwin

“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.” —Norbet Platt

Journal Writing Ideas and Insights a Psychologist: 
As early as 1965, psychologist Ira Progoff and his colleagues began seeing the value of personal journals in enhancing growth and learning. 

Progoff believed what he called an “intensive journal process” could “draw each person’s life toward wholeness at its own tempo.” 

It systematically evokes and strengthens the inner capacities of persons by working from a non-medical vantage point and proceeding without analytic or diagnostic categories” . —(Progoff, 1975, p. 9)

Create your own framework for your creative journal writing

Journal writing is one of the most powerful and easily accessible tools we have to heal, expand and transform our lives.  Journaling about traumatic events helps one process them by fully exploring and releasing the emotions involved, and by engaging both hemispheres of the brain, allowing the experience to become fully integrated in one’s mind. Research shows that journaling:

• decreases the symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and other health conditions
• improves cognitive functioning
• strengthens the immune system, preventing a host of illnesses
• counteracts many of the negative effects of stress

Creative journal writing goes way beyond recording events. It can be the companion that supports but doesn’t judge, a place of unparalleled discovery and a creative playground where the everyday rules no longer count.
Let your journal be a place of unfolding, connecting with your flow and inner wisdom. Allow your imagination to roam free to express and experience all that you want to.

Each journal entry should include the date and here are some examples of what you might include in your journal to help get you started:

Happy journaling!

How to do creative journal writing is a post from: Lorrah Berg

“What is my life purpose?”

“What is it that I’m supposed to be doing with my life?’

“How will I know if what I plan to do is my life purpose?”

“I don’t know what floats my boat, I don’t know my life purpose!”

I even had someone say that they didn’t even know who they were so how could they even know their life purpose!!!

Our life purpose and future doesn’t just drop into our laps.  In today’s chaotic world, you get the future you want by making it happen.  Some call it ‘entrepreneuring the future’.

To have your life purpose and the future you prefer, you compose, design, invent and weave the next chapter of your life using the abundant resources available to everyone.  But you must have a desire and a sense of curiosity to find and use these resources.  The resources I’m talking about have been available to everyone for a long time.  They are universal principals that have been written in many different formats since the beginning of time and are now freely available to all who are willing to explore themselves, create their life purpose and design their future.

‘It doesn’t happen all at once … You become… And it takes a long time’  ………   Margery Williams

As you design your life purpose and future, you will dream, you will construct a plan and make things happen.  Your ability to have clarity, maintain focus and make decisions is perhaps the most important ability you have.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you will end up anywhere and wonder how and why you arrived there. So it’s time to choose your destiny, set your sails, use your own compass and venture forth to make your future happen.

“Change cannot be avoided … change provides the opportunities for innovation. It gives you the chance to demonstrate your creativity.”                                                Keshavan Nair

Start designing your life and your future by getting yourself a journal and writing

1. Think about the things that have changed in your life during the past ten years and ask yourself how much control did you have. (career, finances, health, family, relationships, travel, contribution, community, environment).
2. Imagine it is 2020.  How will your life have changed and how much of it will you have consciously designed?
3. Write down your values.
4. Write down your goals.
5. Conduct an analysis of your time  – what do you do with your time?
6. Observe your own behaviour – what do you do that you love and what do you do out of boredom?
7. Do you have a plan for your life or are you open to anything?
8. Start to include some spiritual practice such as meditation, yoga, etc into your daily life.  This will tap into your intuition even more.
9. Start to ask yourself some quality questions –

• Where do I want to be in 10 years
• How can I move from where I am now and where I want to be?
• How can I find more people to help me get to where I want to be?
• How can I maintain balance in my life?
• What do I need to do to get me to the next step of my life’s journey?
• Now, this is very important – start to look for what answers you are receiving – what feedback are you getting from the universe, what is your external world reflecting back to you? What synchronicities or interesting events are happening?

In upcoming blogs I will be discussing each of the above points in more detail.  Stay tuned!

‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.  The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore progress depends on the unreasonable man’.       George Bernard Shaw

Finding your life purpose .. what future do you want? is a post from: Lorrah Berg

To equate success with busyness has created some real problems.  After so many years of trying to accomplish more, people are suffering the consequences of trying to succeed: headaches, fatigue, overwhelm, alienation from loved ones, increased stress and burnout.  The list is many and they are all symptoms of a life out of balance.

If you look at the word busyness and make one small change – from Y to I – you have a significant cause of today’s problems – business…. work ……career.  Constant activity alienates people from themselves.  People become too busy to know who they are and what they stand for.  For many, they have trouble setting priorities because they don’t take the time to clarify their values or purpose.

One way of finding out how busy you are is to just listen to your own language.  Do you often say things like ‘I’m too busy’, ‘I’ll get back to you on that’, ‘Let’s do a raincheck’, ‘I’ll call you next week’ (but you never do), ‘I don’t have time’  etc.  Some of these may well be true but if you continually use this sort of language then it may be that you have been so busy for so long that you have become resistant to having balance in your life.  This is how you can unknowingly be putting yourself under high levels of stress and heading towards burnout.

When you really take the time to know yourself, connect with what’s important and take action then you will begin to see changes in your life.

My suggestion is to everyone who is caught up in busyness is to take action and make a list of at least three things that you really enjoy in the following categories:

• Mental
• Career/Business
• Financial
• Health & Wellbeing
• Relationships
• Social & Contribution
• Fun
• Spiritual

Keep adding to the list and commit to scheduling time into your daily, weekly, monthly, annual activities to ensure you get out and enjoy a more balanced life.

Does Busyness Equal Success? is a post from: Lorrah Berg

‘Why am I here?’ goes much deeper than what career we are in or what’s best for us.

Passion and purpose are words that are used interchangeably.  The word ‘passion’ comes contains the very essence of what purpose is all about:

PASS – I – ON

Purpose is about making a difference in the lives of others and leaving something of your self behind.  As human beings we are here to grow and expand in awareness.   This is our natural state and is supported by the laws of nature.  No person really wants to think that they’ve lived and died without leaving any trace of their uniqueness behind.  That’s why it’s important to be inspired with what you are doing and connect with other people.

The word ‘passion’ is also about feeling.  To fulfil a passion is to express deeply held feelings.  Passion is not intellectual or rational.  It comes from the heart.  It’s a calling and you feel it rather than think it.  Passion is about experience and expression.

Passion implies desire and when given a voice, will arouse you to take action.  When you are connected with your passion it demands to be fulfilled – to achieve one’s potential or desires. If we fail to listen, we suffer stress, fatigue, frustration and dissatisfaction! And I see this so often in organisations where people are stressed and burning out.  They are all symptoms of living in denial of their passion or haven’t been able to connect the tasks they do on a daily basis with their core values and purpose.

Passion is compelling! It creates an inner sense of urgency very distinct from the external events of our lives.  Passion allows us to be truly alive, energised and full of vitality even when in a resting phase.

Yes, passion may have a sense of uncertainty about it because we can experience some fear and anxiety around living with the ‘unknown’.   But, unlike what we’ve been taught previously, this is where the opportunity of growth and expansion lies.  Our potential is in the fear, the uncertainty and the anxiety.  So to recognise and embrace fear is a commitment to living a fulfilled life.  And fulfilment is about having a balance of support and challenge and being in flow.  Too much challenge leads to stress and burnout and not enough challenge leads to boredom and depression.  Living with passion is living a fulfilled life.

What are you passionate about that’s driving you to living a fulfilled life?

Are You Living Your Life Purpose with Passion? is a post from: Lorrah Berg

Personal development or self leadership is hard work and requires you to take a deep look at yourself, really knowing who you are on the inside and then getting your external reality to be congruent with your inner self.  When you are congruent with your inner being you will confidently challenge and overcome negative feelings such as guilt, blame and shame because you will see them as opportunities for evolving as a human being.

The overall goal in personal development is to achieve outstanding effectiveness while maintaining internal balance where your thoughts, feelings, actions and skills are all working together to create the life you truly desire.  It’s the never-ending journey of life and requires a great deal of time, patience and consistency.

There are no quick fixes in personal development. For lasting change to occur limiting beliefs and decisions or undesirable habits and patterns must be transformed at a cellular level otherwise you will keep experiencing similar events.

There are many tools and techniques available in the personal development field and my suggestion is if you are really looking for deep transformation, try something that will extend your comfort zone, allow you to expand your awareness and fully support you in your evolution and not revolution.

Personal Development for Savvy People is a post from: Lorrah Berg

Many years ago I was taught in assertiveness training that using ‘I’ statements was a good indicator that people were taking responsibility. That was assertiveness 101 and certainly a great introduction to taking responsibility for stating how one might feel or what they believe in. However personal development and self-awareness programs have moved us well beyond this level of understanding but I am still hearing many people using ‘blame’ language such as:

‘they won’t …..’
‘I can’t because…..’
‘if only they would …..’
‘wouldn’t you think that they would ……’

Some of the most common questions I have people ask me are ‘what does it mean for me to take 100% responsibility?’ and ‘how can I be totally 100% responsible for situations where other people are involved?’ These are great questions to be asking yourself because they encourage you to think differently and explore a new understanding of yourself and others.

Usually when I’m asked these questions I hear or feel a sense of anger, frustration and even resentment in peoples’ tone and language. This more often than not indicates to me that they just don’t understand what it means to be responsible and it’s causing them a level of discomfort and keeping them stuck in a ‘victim’ mindset.

Today, there is a plethora of information written about taking 100% responsibility and one that I really like is a simple formula that Dr Robert Resnick, a psychotherapist taught Jack Canfield.  It’s one that I use frequently when I’m personally feeling stuck or catch myself out using ‘blame’ language.  I’ve also received excellent feedback from clients who have used this after attending one of my coaching or training sessions. The formula is:

E+ R = O
(Event + Response = Outcome)

The basic idea of this is that every outcome you experience in life, whether it be perceived as a positive or negative (success or failure, wealth or poverty, health or illness, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event or a series of events in your life.

If you don’t like the outcome or results you are currently experiencing there a two choices you can make:

1. Blame the event (E) for your lack of results/outcome (O)

This means blaming the economy, the weather, the lack of money, lack of education, your partner, your boss and so on.  This approach finds reasons why things aren’t possible and yes it is true that you can’t change the weather or the economy of even your partner or boss.  However there are many hundreds of people who have faced similar or more challenging circumstances and succeeded in an adventure in ‘bad’ weather, created wealth in a ‘bad’ economy or transformed their relationship with their partner or boss.  What’s the difference?

2. Change your response (R) to the events (E) until you get the outcomes (O) that you want

Where you do have power is in your ability to change your thinking, change how you communicate with yourself and others, change the pictures of yourself and the external world and you can most certainly choose to change your actions and behaviour.  Unfortunately, most people are run by their negative habits and beliefs even though they are not serving them simply because they haven’t learned how to do change their response.

Where are you currently at in relation to taking 100% responsibility? If you want to learn more about how people have taken responsibility for their lives and gone on to achieve things that’s important to them then sign up to receive the WonderfulWebWomen Law of Attraction in Action Volume 3.  There are some inspiring stories in this book to get you thinking about taking 100% responsibility.

Or:

• perhaps you want to leave a comment below and share your ideas about taking responsibility
• contact me about my training and coaching programs where I discuss this formula more in detail
• read more about the E+R=O formula in Jack Canfield’s ‘Success Principles’ which you can purchase through my recommended reading section here on the right of your screen

Enjoy and I’ll see you on my next blog!

Taking 100% Responsibility….. what does this really mean? is a post from: Lorrah Berg