All human behavior is driven by beliefs

Your brain is similar to a computer. Your beliefs are the programs that you have loaded into your brain. Human beliefs fall into two categories. These are; beliefs about what will create pleasure and beliefs about what will create pain. We try to achieve those things that we think will create pleasure. We try to avoid those things that we think will create pain. Any two people can have very different beliefs about the same thing.

A person believes that skydiving results in pleasure. Another person believes that skydiving causes pain and death. A person thinks that smoking is cool. Another believes that smoking is an unpleasant habit that brings early illness and death. One person believes that a seat belt prevents serious injury and death. Another believes that the seat belt limits and restricts.

The programs you choose to run will determine your outcome. If you’re running a spreadsheet program on your computer, a series of keystrokes will produce a certain result. If you’re running a word processing program, those same keystrokes will produce a different result.

We all have things in our lives that we would like to change. Temporary change can be achieved through a disciplined change in behavior. Real and lasting change requires a change in beliefs. Unless you change the program your brain is running, it will revert to its old behavior.

We have all done this over and over again in our lives. We have made a commitment to practice our instrument every day. We’ve done it for a period of time, but we fell back into laziness. We dieted and lost weight, but then went back to our old behavior and gained the weight back. We have struggled with an addiction to tobacco, alcohol or some other chemical. We kicked the habit for a while, but we went back to our old behavior. In short, we have tried to improve ourselves in one way or another, but failed to create lasting change.

We will continue to try and fail until something causes us to change our beliefs. When we change the programs running in our brain, we will create lasting change. Most of us have had a life changing experience. An experience where something we had struggled with for months changed in an instant. At that moment, one of our beliefs changed drastically. We knew we should fasten our seat belts, but we couldn’t remember to tighten them. Then something happened. We got a ticket or a friend was in a car accident. We suddenly believed that not wearing a seat belt creates pain. We knew we had to quit, but we couldn’t make it last. So they told a close friend that he had lung cancer or that he had had a stroke. Suddenly, we associate pain with smoking. We were in a bad relationship, but it seemed like we couldn’t leave. We still think it would be better in the future. Then something happened. Suddenly, we saw that it was painful in the past, it was painful in the present, and it would always be painful. At that moment, our beliefs changed. As soon as our beliefs changed, the fight was over.

Real and lasting change is never a matter of skill. It is always a question of motivation. Link enough pain to the old belief and enough pleasure to the new desired belief and lasting change will happen in an instant.

We have to decide. We can decide to sit back and wait for life to hit us with some unpleasant event that changes our beliefs. However, we can take a look at our beliefs. Most of our beliefs are not carefully thought out and chosen. We inadvertently detect them in the same way that we accidentally upload a virus to our computer. Our beliefs can empower us or they can rob us of power, creating artificial boundaries.

If we believe in ourselves and our dreams, we will take massive action to make those dreams come true. We will set definite goals and ways to achieve them. We will look for ways to meet other people in music and build networks of personal relationships. We will look around us every day and ask ourselves, “What can I do today to move closer to those goals and aspirations?”

If we believe that our lives are created by the thoughts we think, the words we say, and the actions we take, we will live rich and fulfilling lives. If we believe that success only comes to a lucky few, we will live lives filled with bitterness, despair, and failure.

The choice is ours. Our creator empowered us with free will. The good book says: “Without vision man will perish.”

We can choose to be visionaries. All it takes is a dream and the unstoppable determination to achieve it.

The day Disney World opened, hundreds of reporters were in attendance. Walt Disney had died before the opening ceremonies. His sister was there instead of Walt.

Some idiot of a reporter walked up to Mr. Disney and said, “This must be a really bittersweet day for you.”

Mr. Disney looked around at the beautiful buildings, attractions, and grounds. He saw the crowd of people having fun and marveling at the beautiful park. He told the reporter that he did not understand the question. What could be bittersweet when everything was going so well?

The reporter said, “Sure, everything is fine. The park is beautiful and everything works fine. But it hurts you to know that Walt never lived to see this.”

Mr. Disney was great. He stays focused. He said, “Young man, it’s clear to me why you’re just a reporter and Walt accomplished so much. My brother dreamed of this. Because he envisioned it years ago, you can see it today. Walt was a visionary!”

I hope you enter the next chapter of your life with a vision of your dream shining brightly before you and with the belief that through your thoughts, words and actions you have the absolute power to make that dream come true.