How Changing Your Beliefs Can Transform Your Life

My experience on how I changed my perspective and I’ve become more open to new stimuli

Sometimes our beliefs become our worst enemy, giving us a different perspective and limiting our potential. We believe that “reality” is what we believe it is, and we build our own “reality” around them. Beliefs are the lens through which we see the world.

For many years, I was convinced I was bad at any kind of sport. I tried so many different activities, from ballet to swimming, and mathematically, after a few sessions, I gave up. I kept saying: “It’s not me; I don’t have a sporting bent”. I didn’t give too much credit to my fitness performance. This is who I was, and it wasn’t worth investing more time.

I used to define myself as a sedentary person, and everybody could confirm that. I believed fitness and sports were not in my category of attention. No interest, no passion, and consequently no consistency to pursue any physical activity. I didn’t like them, and I didn’t want to work hard for something that I didn’t like and knew I wasn’t good at. It was a vicious circle.

When I moved to New York, I was immersed in a different environment. Every time I walked to Central Park, I saw so many people running, and, believe it or not, I got more interested in running. I slowly started running my first 5k, and over the years I ran multiple 5–10ks, half and full marathons. Running is now my passion. I run regularly, and I coach other people to give their best of themselves.

This is a simple example of how my perspective has changed, but it’s applicable to many things in life. What brought me to think in this way? How is it possible that I’m in better shape in my 40s than in my 20s? I’m not a world champion athlete, but my fitness level has increased tremendously compared to when I was younger.

I was exposed to a new environment that helped me become more curious and open to exploring. It’s also true that our brain is constantly exposed to so many stimuli, and it selects what serves best in that moment. I could have met a world champion athlete during my 20s and still not have had an impact on me.

It was a combination of factors: a stimulating environment and a more receptive mind. Why not before? New York can be an event, but I’m pretty sure there were other circumstances that could have changed my perspective, but they didn’t, and I didn’t notice them because I wasn’t looking for them at that point in my life. I wasn’t ready.

When my mind got more open to new stimuli, I started to see new things, and I looked around until I found what served me better at that moment. Life is fluid; life is constantly changing, and we are constantly changing. When I look back, I see how things that I believed to be true in the past worked perfectly at that time, but they are not the same now. It’s part of our nature.

How do we react to the change?

We have options; we can opt for the change or resist the change.

Our education, background, and experiences create our “world”. Those are ideas, and not necessarily absolute truths. They can also be valid for a certain period of time and serve us very well until they don’t.

While beliefs help us to succeed and propel us to achieve our goals, sometimes they keep us clinging to the rock, like mussels.

I love this passage from the book “The Illusions” by Richard Bach:

“Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks at the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.

But one creature said at last, ‘I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.’

The other creatures laughed and said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you shall die quicker than boredom!’

It’s an old book, but I find it very inspiring. I recommend it.

I think it’s key to apply a growth mindset and use our beliefs to our advantage.

We don’t want to lose opportunities or sabotage them in order to validate our beliefs.

Are you waiting for the current to push you, or are you taking the initiative? What is the cost of not doing it? Sometimes not doing something is more costly than doing it wrong.