Remember when you were a little kid and you suddenly had a growth spurt and everyone around you commented “Look how big you’re getting, my goodness.” If you were like me you preened, you were so proud of outgrowing childhood. Finally!
Now imagine you could outgrow any outdated, expired belief just as easily. As your mind has experienced new ideas and acquired new wisdoms, it seems a little silly to hold onto ideas that are outdated, impractical and possibly a hazard.
As an example, if you walk around with a chip on your shoulder when it comes to specific occurrences—annoying automated phone calls or reckless drivers or difficult people–then you’re wearing anger or resentment as an excuse for something deeper that you haven’t yet addressed and gotten rid of. It’s much smarter, and more productive, to pay attention to what you’re still carrying around and decide the grown-up you doesn’t need this useless emotion any more.
If you ask a variety of people about the negative beliefs they may still be harboring, you’ll probably hear the excuse “It’s who I am, I can’t change my DNA.” While that sounds like a practical answer, there are many sources including Dr. Bruce Lipton’s book, The Biology of Belief, that proves from a cellular level we can indeed change almost everything about who we are.
As a new year approaches and we inevitably get out our resolutions yet again, wouldn’t this be the perfect year to shed any negative emotion that has been in any way crippling your success and happiness? You’re not destined to repeat any behavior that isn’t serving you well, unless you decide to. Thank goodness the past doesn’t equal the present or the future. And as I’ve reminded myself many times, happiness is absolutely a skill, and a choice!
Happy New Year, and may this be the year we all swap unwanted beliefs for fresh new ones that enable us to be more of who we were always meant to be.
