My previous blog ended with this declaration. “A belief is no more than the meaning or interpretation we choose to place on the events in our lives or on information that is made available to us.”

And yet our beliefs shape everything we do. They can bring joy beyond imagination and despair beyond endurance, they sculpt our very being, are the very foundation upon which our decisions are made, our actions are taken and are directly proportional to the quality of our lives.

Alfred Korzybski, (1879-1950) the renowned scientist, philosopher and founder of the discipline known as General Semantics made a statement that “the map is not the territory” essentially telling us that we use our cartography skills to naturally forge a map in our heads that represents our views of the world.

And the “data” we use to draw our maps comes to us from every experience we have, every interaction, conversation and exposure to every stimulus in our lives.

So we assemble all of this into a map in our heads and then assume that this map, which is, of course, simply a mirror reflecting our beliefs, is a perfect representation of what is real in the world and we use this map to navigate our journey through life.

This process would work really well if only we all drew the same map. Unfortunately as we progress through life we constantly encounter people who simply aren’t bright enough to understand the correctness of our maps and are foolish enough to falsely belief that their maps have rightful position in our universe. I meet these types all the time and, I have to tell you, they really tick me off.

The funny thing about our beliefs, and a point many folks struggle to wrap their heads around, is that if our beliefs truly are only a meaning we place on events and information and not the meaning then all of our beliefs could possibly have many different meanings.

If this is true then in order to get different results in our lives we need to start with different beliefs about our lives

So to answer the question “just who do you think you are”, you need only ask “what do you think you are?.

Do you believe me?

Till we read again.