“Whether you think you can or think you can’t – You’re right.”
– Henry Ford
Jerry’s career had stalled out. There was room for growth in the company where he worked but he just wasn’t climbing any higher on the ladder. He was good at his job. His coworkers liked him. Whenever there was an opportunity for promotion, he threw his hat in the ring, but the job always went to someone else. By all outward appearances, there didn’t seem to be any reason for Jerry to be stuck in a rut. But if we were able to get inside Jerry’s head, we’d start to see a clearer picture emerge. We would see that every time an opportunity for advancement comes up, no matter how badly he wants it, he doesn’t believe he’s worthy. We would hear beliefs he carries about himself bouncing around like, “I’m not really executive material” or “I’m sure the other guy is more qualified than me” and “If I really deserved this promotion I wouldn’t have to compete for it.” These are the beliefs that Jerry carries into the interview room and he might as well be carrying a sign that says I’m Not Ready For This. Jerry’s Belief Matrix is not aligned with the outcome he’s wanting to produce.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, wait a minute Joey, Belief Matrix? Is that different from my Inner Matrix? The answer is, yes and no. Remember, your Inner Matrix is your unique set of thoughts and emotions that drive your actions. Your Belief Matrix is made up of the core beliefs you carry about different aspects of life. These are the four or five core beliefs you carry about money, relationships, body image, etc. Like the emotional base of your Inner Matrix, these beliefs are rooted in early life experiences. I’ll give you an example: I love fast cars. But when I was teenager, working minimum wage jobs, I couldn’t afford an expensive sports car. I had to buy old junkers and fix them up myself. I remember one time, looking through a Hot Rod magazine and seeing the part I needed was going to cost me $1500. I was making a little over three bucks an hour. I figured, after paying my expenses, I’d be able to put away about twenty bucks a month. I did a quick calculation and realized it was going to take me six and half years to save up for this one part. I remember it made me angry. Who can possibly afford this stuff? It seared in my brain that day a belief that it was hard to make money. I carried this belief around for years before I realized that the belief itself was informing the actions I was taking. I started listening to successful people around me and observing their beliefs about money. The message I got from them was that it was easy to make money. So I wrote it down. And I told myself that making money was easy. And I trained this new belief into my Belief Matrix. Now, that doesn’t mean the money started pouring in that day. Of course not. But it positioned me to be better aware of opportunities and possibilities that I may not have been able to see before.
So if I were working with Jerry, I would want to take a good look at his Belief Matrix. Like with the Inner Matrix, we can also observe the beliefs that make up our Belief Matrix. We can learn whether those beliefs are helping us or hindering us on our way to achieving our vision. And when we find a belief that’s standing in our way, we can simply recognize it and retrain it. Jerry is carrying a certain set of beliefs into the promotion interview and it’s dictating his performance. But he can develop and train a new belief that will override the others. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as “I am prepared to get the result I choose in any situation.” Not “I will be prepared” or “I can be prepared” but “I am prepared.” Beliefs like “I’m not executive material” or “The other guy is more qualified” won’t even come into play because Jerry will be operating inside of “I am prepared to get the results I choose in any situation.” Like I said, it’s not going to happen overnight. As with everything else we do, it takes time and training and a commitment to realizing your vision.
One of the key places we train the Belief Matrix is Power of Focus. Learn more and sign up for Power of Focus or any of our Power Series Weekend Intensives HERE.