I’m always fascinated when I read stories or case studies about “the placebo effect”. The typical scenario has a group of people being given a sugar pill but they BELIEVE the treatment is real. Often these people recover as well, or even better than those who received the actual treatment.
The explanation of this phenomenon basically comes down to the fact that the patient believed the treatment was real, and it was the belief that caused the positive result.
I’m sure you would agree that people always act and respond based on what they believe to be true. For example, if you believed you saw a bear in the forest, you would likely react with fear. If the bear turned out to be a person dressed in a bear costume, you would still react with just as much fear until you were told the “real” truth. Once you were aware that the bear was not real, you believed a new reality and your response would change drastically.
Well this process can be applied to pretty much any area of life.
Most often, I think about this process when it comes to achieving a goal that is well beyond anything you have accomplished before. It is very difficult to believe that you are capable of achieving something so foreign to your current life results.
For example, if you are terrified of speaking in front of a small group, it is next to impossible to believe that you would be capable of delivering a powerful speech to a large audience. However, if you spent 30 days reading, studying and even speaking to people who overcame your exact situation to become powerful speakers, you would quickly create the belief that this was also possible for you.
Once you had truly convinced your mind that you were also capable of being a speaker, your actions would follow suit. You would take speaker training, you would participate in speaking engagements, you would join public speaking clubs and you would likely do anything else that moved you towards the goal.
But all of these actions were governed by the fact that you believed you were capable.
So here is the real question. Do you have certain goals or ideas that you may have been rejecting because you simply did not believe you were capable?
If so, it is very likely that you formed this belief by default without ever really asking yourself if it was possible. Well now is your chance to start changing that belief. Look for other people who have done what you want to do and study them. Realize that it is very likely possible for you too. Change your beliefs and in turn, change your actions. Change your actions and you have a new life!
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