Old Beliefs Keep Coming Back?

You identified an old belief that was blocking you and keeping you stuck.

It’s not true. But it’s still your first thought when situations trigger you.

That’s normal! It’s because of how brains work. When we think the same thought over and over again, the brain creates something called a myelin sheath around the neurons that think the thought. Those thoughts are on autopilot.

Those old, negative beliefs are faster than new beliefs. The myelin sheaths are like grease, speeding the negative beliefs into your thoughts.

The new beliefs you’re trying to build don’t have years of grease. They’re slow.

Fixing that is like building a habit of any kind. Notice when it happens. Think about the new belief. Then choose the new belief over the old belief.

That breaks down the old belief’s myelin sheath. And starts building one around your new belief.

I’ve created a habit tracker that you can use to help you do this!

It’s available for free to subscribers of my weekly newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber and don’t see the download link shown below, make sure you’re logged in.

Download the free habit tracker and start reinforcing your new belief today.

Here’s how to use the habit tracker.

Write the old, false belief in the first space. Write the new, true belief you’re trying to replace it with in the second space.

For example, your false belief might be, “I screw everything up.” Your new, true belief might be “Everyone makes mistakes, but I do most things right.”

When something triggers you, and makes that greased old belief pop into your head, write down what the trigger was. Then fill out the thought that immediately popped into your head. What thought would you rather have? Then write down which one you chose to believe, and check either the smiley face (new belief wins, yay!) or the frowny face (old, false belief wins).

For example, say you were turning the lights off before going to bed. You turned off the living room lights, then saw the kitchen light was still on. You turned that off, and on your way through the living room, knocked a glass over and it broke. You thought, “Oh, no, I screwed up again.”

Breaking the glass would be the trigger.

“Oh, no, I screwed up again,” was the first thought.

Then you take a moment, and realize the living room was unexpectedly dark with the kitchen light off. You had forgotten that you’d left the glass there earlier in the evening. You’d bumped it with your elbow because you couldn’t see it. It was a cascade of errors, because you were tired.

“Everyone makes mistakes when they’re tired,” might be the thought you wished you’d had.

And you can choose to believe, “Everyone makes mistakes when they’re tired. In the future, I’ll try to be more careful when I’m sleepy, so I don’t make mistakes.”

Or you could choose to believe, “People have accidents when they can’t see well, so in the future, I’ll make sure everything is put away before turning out the lights.”

Both of those would be smiley face outcomes.

You could even choose to believe, “Everyone makes mistakes. I made one, but I can clean it up.”

That would also be a smiley face outcome.

Or, you could choose to believe that you always make mistakes, and this was just another example of how you always screw things up.

That would earn a frowny face outcome.

Even if you choose to believe your first, negative thought, that’s okay! Just the fact that you stopped and considered another thought before accepting it is progress. It helps to weaken that myelin sheath, so maybe next time, you won’t be quite so quick to jump to that belief.

Remember, you’ve had years to build up these negative beliefs. Give yourself at least as long as you’d give to build a habit of drinking more water or going to the gym.

Congratulations on building a better belief!