Creating a Belief Board (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Creating a Belief Board

[MrLollige]

Just read the article. My magnetic board is funny enough soon being moved to a more comfortable and usable place, and my new desktop background contains stimulating text telling me to make a game
Thanks steve

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

But you can witness their effects when you set a new goal and then notice the various ways in which you block yourself from achieving it quickly. Maybe you procrastinate. Maybe you hold back due to fear. Maybe you question whether or not you’re worthy of some new accomplishment. Maybe you make avoidable mistakes that sabotage your progress. Much of the resistance you experience is coming from your subconscious beliefs.

This is so true and so frustrating. But I wonder if a part of personal development is recognizing these behaviors WHILE they are happening. So many times I have set a goal, and actually taken action, and slowly, I start undoing that action, slowly I forget about the original goal, until I say "hey wait a minute. Didn't I say a couple weeks ago I was going to consistently do xyz?"

By now, I have knowledge of what I am doing to myself so it is kind of funny in a way. Many important subconscious beliefs, I have re-programmed (the belief that I am a cigarette smoker, the belief that I don't enjoy exercise or can't exercise regularly, the belief that it is too hard to make my own meals, the belief that I can't go out alone and meet new people, the belief that I can't go on long trips by myself and have solo adventures). So I am proud of that.

But the "big stuff", I spin my wheels on and procrastinate. I would like to develop the strength and discipline to see my own intentions through to the end. Actually, the stuff I just listed that I have achieved, I spun my wheels on those things too until I finally incorporated them into my life. Perhaps I had to get some more foundations set before I could handle the bigger stuff like WEALTH and LOVE and FREEDOM.

Anyhow, there is a nice blank area of my wall I'm going to redecorate.

[Jack Christopher]

Steve, you should experiment with the typeface. Gotham type is nice when big and bold and all in caps.

You want something that announces to your subconscious, "Let's rally and get this done!"

[InsertNameHere]

I've got two now: I am not afraid, I am honest

[James81]

Seeing that vid last night inspired me to past up "I am a Non-Smoker" on my door, so that it's the first thing I see whenever I leave the house.

I've discovered a certain sense of peace in closing my eyes and envisioning that sign.

[andreelerowes]

@James81

As someone who has never smoked, I don't think of myself as a "non-smoker." I wonder if even having the word "smoker" on your radar is problematic. Anyway, good luck with it!

[cylon]

Amazon.com: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking: Join the Millions Who Have Become Non-Smokers Using Allen Carr's Easyway Method: Allen Carr: Books

[Matt Willard]

Hey, Steve, thanks for writing an article about your board! I definitely want to try it soon-now that I've realized that changing our beliefs can undo a lot of resistance, I want to use it to affect myself across the board.

[Curtis2011]

Thanks for this, Steve!

Most of the time I just skim over your articles, but this one really captivated me and I read straight through it. It really focused and inspired me. It makes me yearn to remove some of my own limiting beliefs, and replace them with my own concoctions

[PVince81]

If some employee posted a belief board in his cubicle stating "I am extremely productive", I wonder how funny would be the look on the face of his boss passing by.

[EnhanceMyLife]

Hi all, this is my first post here. Reading about the Belief Board and seeing the video really inspired me tonight. I ended up with 16 sheets which I'm sharing with you below. I made 3 copies so I have a Belief Board on the wall above my desk, one in my bedroom, and one in my kitchen. Quick background on me is that I'm a self-employed, work from home bachelor.

I spent about an hour creating my Belief Board messages and about 2 hours reflecting on them tonight after I put them up. I really feel good and joyful at seeing these and that I gave myself permission to do this. I feel like I gave myself a great gift. So I just want to encourage anyone reading this thread to give it a try. I thought maybe I'd only need 6 sheets like Steve has, but I just kept going!

My Belief Board:

1) I earn $1,000 each week! (Being self-employed, my income varies, so I want to create consistent financial buoyancy. I feel comfortable with $1,000 to start and look forward to upping the amount soon! )

2) I prioritize the most important things first!

3) I make daily progress on my goals!

4) I am debt-free and financially free!

5) I keep promises!

6) I am self-disciplined, organized and a great manager and planner!

7) I am healthy, fit and strong!

8) I believe in myself and the value I create!

9) I am with the woman of my dreams!

10) I live my passions every day!

11) I help others, I share with others!

12) I travel and live wherever I want! (Like Hawaii!)

13) I create success!

14) I show my family and friends that I care about them and love them!

15) I am grateful!

#16 is a doozy. I thought it would be fun to create a stream-of-consciousness list of goals/activities/things I like. Then I revised it to be an amalgamation of possibly the most awesome day I could think of and is ordered more or less from waking up to going to sleep. It's more of a fun list of inspiring reminders of how I want to fill my days. So here it is:

(Takes a deep breath...) Wake Up! Get Up! Get Ready! Sunrise! Stretch! Meditate! Joy! Success! Abundance! Freedom! Fresh Fruit! Pancakes! Syrup! Coffee! Journal! Options! Opportunities! Power! Goals! Plans! Decide! Take Action! Produce Value! Care! Take Pride! Research! Read! Brainstorm! Good Attitude! Inspire! Be Inspired! Learn! Teach! Grow! Try! Write! Edit! Revise! Publish! Draw! Illustrate! Photograph! Design! Build! Enhance! Optimize! Blog! Twitter! Track! Measure! Manage! See! Do! Go! Encourage! Support! Believe! Work Out! Health! Run! Throw! Catch! Play! Fun! Share! Invite! Join! Classic Cars! Nature! Sunset! Travel! Beach! Ocean! Whales! Dolphins! Connect! Socialize! Babes! Friends! Family! Football! Beer! Wine! Sushi! Museum! Zoo! Art! Music! Concert! Date! Party! Laugh! Love! Slow Down! Relax! Reflect! Forgive! Dream!

I hope anyone who needed some inspiration or encouragement and a smile or laugh got all that from my post. I look forward to your thoughts and please steal anything you want for yourself from my list!

[Pacifists]

I've had a cork board for over a month now and I have like 4 sheets of paper hanging on it with my goals. The problem is they are written by hand and letters are small, so that makes them hard to read from distance. Now I have an idea how to make it better and more powerful.

I really enjoyed the tour around your house Steve it's all though out an there's so much space to enjoy yourself.

EnhanceMyLife: won't it be too much? I mean can you really work on 15 things simultaneously and get them all achieved?

[Dev]

I plan to put my affirmations on my mobile as daily reminders (during different hours of the day) & also as recorded messages. I will be experimenting with this for a month. Lets see if this works for me.

[EnhanceMyLife]

@Pacifists

It's not a list of goals or things to achieve per se. A Belief Board is meant to instill new beliefs that drive actions and goal achievements. They are inspiring reminders to help me achieve, because we have to Believe first, before we can Achieve. Actually, it's a self-reinforcing cycle: Believe some, achieve some. More achievements leads to stronger beliefs which leads to more achievement, etc., etc. What do you think?

[WadudaNura]

... I really want to do that, but I have issues with that, because I live at home, people/family come into my room, and if they see something on a board in my room that says "I weigh 150lbs" or some other goal... I can't handle the discouragement / criticism that ensues....

any suggestions?

[Aleksander Krstic]

Originally Posted by InsertNameHere

I've got two now: I am not afraid, I am honest

Have you ever heard of not using negative-sounding affirmations? How about using "I am courageous instead".

[Trezker]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Krstic

Have you ever heard of not using negative-sounding affirmations? How about using "I am courageous instead".

That makes power and truth. How about adding a statement for love?

[Crash]

Originally Posted by WadudaNura

... I really want to do that, but I have issues with that, because I live at home, people/family come into my room, and if they see something on a board in my room that says "I weigh 150lbs" or some other goal... I can't handle the discouragement / criticism that ensues....

any suggestions?

Start with "I am self-confident" instead.

Btw: Great article and video, Steve. Thank you!

[Henri J]

@EnhanceMyLife, wow, that is a lot of paper right there!

I'm test-driving this method and just having a financial goal on my wall behind my monitors. It feels good seeing it up there!

@WadudaNatura, I know where you're coming from, as for suggestions, I am empty on those. It sucks when people suck, is there any place you can put those goals where you see them but others do not?

[Pacifists]

Originally Posted by WadudaNura

... I really want to do that, but I have issues with that, because I live at home, people/family come into my room, and if they see something on a board in my room that says "I weigh 150lbs" or some other goal... I can't handle the discouragement / criticism that ensues....

any suggestions?

@WadudaNura: First thing that popped into my head is: Record your voice with those positive affirmations you need, put them into your mp3 player and play them to yourself.

I think that would help if you can't put that on the wall yet and with time acquire the courage to post that on the wall.

[EnhanceMyLife]

Originally Posted by WadudaNura

... I really want to do that, but I have issues with that, because I live at home, people/family come into my room, and if they see something on a board in my room that says "I weigh 150lbs" or some other goal... I can't handle the discouragement / criticism that ensues....

any suggestions?

At the least, put your Belief Board in a notebook. That way it's private for you and you can look at it whenever you like.

The next step in building your courage and your ability to resiliently withstand criticism is to start small with a couple beliefs first that you WANT to share with your family/people in your life. Such as: "I love my family." "I'm thankful for my great friends." "I'm thankful for the ENCOURAGEMENT and SUPPORT from the people in my life."

Think about those. Are they beliefs you want to have? What do you think would happen if your family members and the people important to you saw them? How would they feel? Would they feel grateful? Would they thank you? I hope so. I hope that if what you did was met with derision that in time the person doing so would eventually realize what they did and apologize. But the main point is, you'll never know what will happen unless you try. Posting affirmations about your family is hopefully a great way to start building your courage about putting up bolder Beliefs on your Board later on.

So the idea is to start with beliefs that you want to have about your family so that they see what you're doing, learn to understand it, and be supportive of you putting up more Beliefs. It sounds like these issues are far more important to you than weighing 150 lbs. You want to live in a loving supportive home. Then make it happen! Can you imagine you inspiring your family members to put up their own Belief Boards? Could the action you take change your life and your family? If it's what you want, keep envisioning it.

Are you on MySpace? Post a short blog with your initial Belief board. Are you on Facebook? Post a status update with it and a Note. Twitter? Twitter it.

Hope you found this helpful. This discussion thread is your safety net and we've got your back. Tell us what happens good or bad. Keep us updated on changes you see and feel.

[MrsBlessed]

Great post.

Your idea reminds me of an idea I read years ago in Catherine Ponders book, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity.

In the book her idea was similar with your idea in that she would put affirmations on sticky notes all over her house. She would correspond the affirmation to a particular area of her house.

I had started doing this a few months ago, but what I did was to write a bunch of affirmations on 3x5 index cards, and tape them to the windowsill above my sink so that when I'd wash the dishes, I would read them. It would make that mundane task more relaxing as I'd let me mind think upon those ideas.

Your post has inspired me to take it one step further and post large signs like you have. I am going to put all over my home. (I have a small 2 bedroom, so I'll be seeing them all day.)

Thank you so much for always sharing your great ideas!

[andreelerowes]

@enhancemylife

Your excessive exclamation points rock. Totally digging it...

[smartile]

Hi Steve,

It was interesting to see how you went through different iterations of your financial goal until you found the one that fit right for you.

I went through a similar process of writing out my goal and then "checking in" with my unconscious to see if the goal fit.

Not only did I check the dollar amount of my financial goal, I also asked my unconscious to come up with the best date to achieve that goal. Originally, I had set a financial goal for December 2009. After a few iterations of writing out my goal and coming back to it every morning, my unconscious came back with a target to meet that goal by August, 2009.

I was a little surprised, but the new target date felt like the right one for me - and I think that's the key. The goal is the right one when it feels like it's the right one; and the only way to have it feel right is when the unconscious and conscious minds are aligned to that goal.

[impaul99]

Nice, I just created one for myself for my vision board.

I realized that my current one I had up there for affiliate marketing I already achieved it. Crazy, I didn't realize it until now.

[eruso]

I kinda stole some of your more "vague" beliefs, because they resonate with me and what I need right now so well:



Thanks Steve ^_^

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by PVince81

If some employee posted a belief board in his cubicle stating "I am extremely productive", I wonder how funny would be the look on the face of his boss passing by.

If he were my employee, I'd spotlight him (or, if he didn't want to be spotlighted, I'd at least spotlight his idea. But the key is to spotlight a person, since it inspires people by giving them an example to follow and aspire to--a hero).

[fere]

Originally Posted by WadudaNura

people/family come into my room, and if they see something on a board in my room that says "I weigh 150lbs" or some other goal... I can't handle the discouragement / criticism that ensues....

If you have your own computer, use your desktop screen as a belief board. That's what I am doing.

Not that my family would criticize me (perhaps just joke ), but I'm the kind of person who keeps his trials secret until they're good enough to show the world. Also I don't always follow through.

[IamBren]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

If he were my employee, I'd spotlight him (or, if he didn't want to be spotlighted, I'd at least spotlight his idea. But the key is to spotlight a person, since it inspires people by giving them an example to follow and aspire to--a hero).

I would be mercilessly ridiculed, not spotlighted, if I did that here!