You can turn a moment of turmoil into a moment of peace by simply choosing intentionally what you listen to, both outside and inside your head.

Outside sources like news, media, and other people influence the thoughts in your head that cement into beliefs with repetition over time.

Your beliefs can be a source of comfort for you, or a source of pain.

Beliefs can make you want to keep going or give up, start or stop, try or yield.

Your moods, actions, and habits all stem from your beliefs.

Every action that you take first starts with a belief–a belief about what you think is possible for you.

Every action that you don’t take, is also indicative of a belief–a belief of what you do not think is possible for you.

Therefore, your progress and your outcomes are dictated by your beliefs.

There are few things more important.

Yet, most people leave it up to chance and resort to the defaults impressed upon them by their surroundings and their upbringing.

Instead of letting your mind run on autopilot, have you ever stopped to consider that your beliefs are a choice?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself…

What beliefs–should I choose to believe them–

• make me feel a sense of peace?
• make me feel empowered?
• make me feel like I can achieve what I want to achieve?

If you’re looking for a fresh new set of beliefs, I got you, you can have these. 😉

They’ll not only set you up for success by helping you stay persistent on the path to achieving your goals, but they will also give you a sense of peace along the way.

01 / Nothing is wasted.

We’ve all been there–pouring our time, money, and energy into something that ultimately doesn’t work out the way we expect.

It’s discouraging, demotivating, and everything feels like a complete waste.

But, in truth, nothing is wasted.

No loss.

No effort.

No experience. 

Every failure comes with a lesson.

Every pain is a gateway to growth. 

Every closed door leads to an open one.

The moments you would label as failure, the events you would label as irrelevant, the encounters you would label as random–in hindsight, all come together.

The further you zoom out, the more things make sense, and the easier it is to see the connections between all the people, events, and experiences of your life, and how it all works in your favor.

With time and perspective, you can see how:

• the job you hated that had nothing to do with your passions, trained you to have the skills needed to start your dream business today

• the person who rejected you then, pushed you towards the person who loves you unconditionally now

• the “random” conversation with a stranger you met taught you the lesson you needed at just the right time to later make a difficult life decision

Treat life like a treasure hunt.

Look for the gold in everything.

If you look hard enough, you’ll find it.

02 / There is no such thing as failure.

We are conditioned to believe that failure is final, and that failure is a bad thing that should be avoided.

None of this is true.

Failure serves multiple purposes that are to your benefit.

It is a foundation from which you can iterate.

It’s essential to your ability to make improvements over time.

It aids in the process of elimination by showing you what doesn’t work, so you can get closer to what does.

It is the failures on the micro level that lead you to success on the macro level.

You can’t achieve any large goal without trying many small things along the way, seeing what works, and correcting course accordingly.

It is said that if you want to succeed fast, then you need to fail fast.

Failure is not to be taken personally.

When things don’t work, we are quick to equate that to problems with ourselves instead of our approach.

What you label as failure is simply feedback.

Failure provides data, without which success would never be possible.

03 / You already have what you need.

Tools, money, knowledge, connections…

You already have enough.

We use lack as an excuse for falling short of our goals, but really what we lack is resourcefulness, resolve, creativity, will, and imagination.

There are many, many steps in between you and your final goal.

Most people make the mistake of thinking they need everything for their entire journey just to take the first step.

But all you have to do is first commit to your goal.

Then, as you take steps forward, everything you need to get you to the next step will show up right when you need it.

(I talk about this concept in my book, Challenge Accepted.)

You don’t have what you need to take the final step, but you do have what you need to take the next step.

And that’s all you have to worry about.

04 / Life is not a zero sum game.

Someone else’s success does not mean your failure.

Money in someone else’s pocket does not take money out of yours.

In a zero sum game, one person’s gain is equivalent to another person’s loss, because there is only so much to go around.

Every piece taken from the pie, leaves less pie for everyone else.

But life is not a zero sum game.

Success, wealth, love, and happiness are not finite resources.

They are created on demand, in limitless abundance, through imagination, creativity, and will.

There is enough for everyone.

There is more than enough for everyone–including you.

The scarcity mentality that is pervasive in our society has people pitted against each other, fighting under the illusion of “competition,” trying to pull others down to push themselves up.

Let go of the idea of “competition.”

Don’t focus on what other people have that you think you should have.

No one can take from you what is meant for you. 

05 / Progress is often invisible.

If you were to take a cup of water and gradually decrease its temperature, eventually the water would freeze and turn to ice.

But you can’t actually see the water turn to ice in real time.

From moment to moment, it doesn’t look like anything is happening.

But after enough time passes, you will clearly be able to see the difference from the beginning state (water) to the end state (ice).

Just because you can’t see the water freezing, doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

It is the same way with progress.

It may seem like nothing is happening, but then–seemingly all of a sudden, everything happens all at once.

As long as you are consistent with your assignment, there are forces at work in the background and things orchestrating in your favor without your awareness, and the cumulative outcomes of your cumulative inputs will eventually become obvious.

When you know this, you will keep moving towards your goals and won’t stop just because you haven’t seen tangible results yet.

06 / You are not the voice in your head.

This was a truly life changing concept I learned from my absolute favorite book, The Untethered Soul.

By favorite book, I mean it had the biggest impact on my life.

It is based around the simple premise that you are not the voice in your head–you are the one who watches and listens to the voice.

This concept is so liberating because it frees you from being at the whim of the negative thoughts that enter your mind. 

How often do we form our self image, and base our self confidence around the voice in our head?

How often do we stop ourselves from doing or pursuing something because of a thought that comes into our minds?

Your mind says, “this is scary.”

So you stop.

Your mind says, “it won’t work.”

So you don’t try.

Your mind says, “you’re not good enough.”

So you give up.

Your mind says, “other people can do this, but I can’t.”

So you believe it.

Positive thinking is pushed on us as the be-all end-all solution to all our problems.

But it’s impossible to think positive all the time.

You have a zillion (ish) thoughts a day.

How could they possibly all be positive?

Thinking is involuntary, but action is voluntary.

Your thoughts are not entirely up to you, but your reactions to those thoughts are.

Your brain is constantly making noise, but it doesn’t mean you have to listen.

You don’t have to leave your actions, reactions, and emotions up to the endless flow of thoughts in your mind.

You don’t have to obey or behave in line with the negative thoughts that pop into your head. 

07 / When you do your best, nothing else matters.

The (highly recommended) book, The Four Agreements, outlines four simple principles for life, one of which is “Always do your best.”

It’s almost automatic to look back on every situation and think what you could have done differently or should have done better.

But if you always do your best, you have no reason for regret, shame, or disappointment because you have done all that you can do.

We all have those days where we feel on top of the world, and we can do anything and everything.

Then we all have those days where we can barely drag ourselves out of bed.

Your job isn’t to match your same output every day.

Your job is to give 100% every day-whatever that is at that time.

Your best is a moving goal post.

It changes from season to season, day to day, and even from moment to moment.

Focus on doing your best each day within your physical, mental, and emotional capabilities.

Then let the rest go.

Instead of wasting your energy beating yourself up for how things could have gone, you can now use that energy to continue running your race.

If you were to choose these beliefs…

How would your actions change?

How would your mood change?

How would your habits change?

How would your life change?

Don’t settle for a set of default beliefs.

Choose your own.

Choose beliefs that make you feel and act in accordance with the person you want to be, the goals you want to achieve, and the life you want to create.

Hope this helps. 😊