Doing a Belief Audit

“The birth of excellence begins with our awareness that our beliefs are a choice.”  Tony Robbins in Unlimited Power.

A belief is a feeling of absolute certainty about something; it’s a concrete knowing of something’s meaning.  Our beliefs drive our behavior and emotions providing us with a foundation for making decisions and navigating the world.  

Most of us unconsciously act out, and react to, millions of beliefs each day; yet most of us cannot succinctly identify the triggering belief.  When we engage in a Belief Audit we bring awareness to our beliefs and link behavior and/or emotions to the instigating belief.  We can then challenge the validity of each belief letting go of the ones that are false or harmful while affirming the beliefs that are true, positive and that propel us into a better life.  

"The challenge is, most of us do not consciously decide what we’re going to believe.  Instead, often our beliefs are misinterpretations of past events."   Tony Robbins

A Belief Audit is a 2 step process:  1) Identify your beliefs:  this step requires tracing behavior and feelings back to the triggering belief; and 2) Challenge the belief’s validity:  this step requires looking at the belief with a critical eye and actively choosing to accept or discard.  

This process was one of the most transformative and powerful things I have ever done.  However, at first I pushed back on this process since I struggled to accept that my beliefs were not ultimate truths and/or were flexible.  As a person who thinks in black and white and craves certainty, I was very much attached to the definiteness of my beliefs.  I had depended on and relied upon my beliefs for 40 years as “ultimate truths” and accepting that every one of my beliefs was “up for debate” was a large, anxiety-filled challenge.   However, once I got over the anxiety and continued the Audit, the process became easier and the changes in my life occurred quite quickly.  I was completely stunned to realize how many false and harmful (and to be honest bat crap crazy) beliefs were running (and ruining) my life.  I had a lot of inaccurate beliefs from my parents that I didn’t even know I had.  I had beliefs arising out of untrue assumptions and misperceptions.  I had beliefs from childhood that I had outgrown and beliefs I had accepted from people I don’t admire or trust.  I had conflicting beliefs and beliefs establishing impossible standards.  I realized soon after starting my Belief Audit that one of the biggest reasons my life had run amuck was because I was trying to live up to all of these unconscious beliefs that were false, unreasonable and/or not even mine.  

Although the Belief Audit seems simple, the process can be tricky.  Over the next few blogs I will share my personal experiences, challenges and strategies which I have found helpful.