This Advent season I am motivated to glean the stuff, and the commitments that no longer serve me. I am making room for new adventures and new challenges in 2016.

I am also examining my beliefs to see if there are any self-defeating thoughts that can be put on the curb. This video has been a powerful reminder to me of truths I learned in CTI Co-active Leadership training. Especially at a time when people in our communities are acting out of fear.

Dr. Nick Hall’s thesis is that we do not control our circumstances, but we do control our own mind. Achieving our goals will depend on our beliefs. Our conditioning based on these beliefs can also undermine our attempts to achieve our goals.

The good news is we can change our beliefs. Step one, identify a belief. What do you believe? Step two, ask these three questions:

1. Is this belief justified?
2. Is this belief serving a useful purpose?
3. Does it make me feel good?

This process is very liberating because the first step starts you on a journey towards choice and freedom. Most of the time we are operating on autopilot on beliefs–and they do not always serve us or our goals. In a recent Bloomberg interview, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital. “When asked about Sequoia’s lack of women, Moriz said they were looking to hire more. But ‘what we’re not prepared to do is lower our standards,’ he said.” (from Upworthy article)

His statement reveals his beliefs that women are not as capable as men. As long as he does not examine this belief and ask Hall’s three questions, he will not achieve his goals of hiring (and retaining) women employees.

Hall offers more insights in the video and in his two books:

Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life

I Know What to Do So Why Don’t I Do It

Join me in this mind adventure.