The Power of Language in Creating or Changing Beliefs

“Whether you think that you can or that you can’t, you’re right”
- Henry Ford *

Have you ever wondered why someone else is always the one to get the promotion or the pay rise and yet you don’t think they’re any better than you?

Have you ever wondered why you set a goal but for some reason you just can’t achieve it or something goes wrong to sabotage it just before you reach your goal?

These are just two of the things that can happen when your internal language is not in harmony with what you want to achieve. If your unconscious is busy telling you “I can’t…..” or “I’ll fail…..” or “I’m not good enough……” or “I’m afraid……” or “I don’t deserve it……” then it’s likely that you will not achieve what you want because you have already embedded in your mind the belief that you will not succeed.

Sometimes we build up these beliefs on the basis of past performance and then make the excuse to ourselves because we failed once, we will always fail. One thing that Thomas Edison knew was that many failures didn’t mean that he would always fail. So he kept trying and eventually succeeded in inventing the light bulb. He succeeded because he had the belief that he would succeed so he had to keep trying until he did.

Since the negative language about ourselves that most of us have tucked away in our unconscious is a myth (belief) of our own making, why not create the belief of success by using positive language? Do that and eventually the belief will become the reality of success.

If you are not convinced that language is intimately linked to beliefs and successes/failures, spend some time listening to people who are successful (and that may include yourself). You won’t hear successful people using self-sabotaging negative language about their area of success. Negative language is what you will hear from those who either don’t succeed or don’t try. If you have a coach, they can work with you to identify your language patterns that are linked to your beliefs.

I acknowledge that it is not always easy to change the negative patterns but having an awareness about the language that you use currently is the first step towards creating change in your beliefs about yourself.

Where do you want your beliefs to take you in life?

*) One of the things I love about coaching is the learnings I get about myself along the way. As I started writing this, I was searching my mind for an appropriate quote and then remembered the one at the beginning of the article. I always like to credit to the original author if I can but couldn’t remember who it was. My first thought was “I’m not very good at remembering things like that”.

Wow. I wasn’t aware of that thought pattern so I was a bit surprised about how I’d set myself up for failure with that belief system. Yes, I am very poor at remembering authors’ names. Do I need to be? No. I know if I put in the effort, I could be very good. Do I want to be? Yes, along with a huge list of other things I’d like to be good at. Do I want to put in the time and effort to be good at it? Not necessarily, because I know I am very good at research, so I can use that skill to find authors’ names. However, one thing changed in an instant for me and I know that I will use my memory skills differently in the future. The thing that changed is my belief system about remembering names and my self-talk now is “I can remember.” So my belief system is now one of success rather than failure. I know absolutely that in future, when I make the effort to remember a quote, I will also make the effort to remember the author. With my language patterns, I am embedding a belief that will with time become a reality.