Changing my beliefs

It's been quite awhile since I posted on this blog.  I guess you could say that I'm still trying to find myself.  As it happens, I got a little lost along the way.  Such a familiar story.  I had good intentions, the time, the resources and just didn't have the motivation or direction to keep the engine running.

If you've been reading my stuff for very long then you've heard me say, "I've been giving it a lot of thought...".  That, I believe, is my problem.  I get stuck in my head a lot of the time.  I'm thinking, pondering, analyzing instead of doing.  I've always been a big dreamer and I've always known that implementation was my weakness.  But, one of the things that I've been pondering and studying got me looking at that last statement in a different light.

"Known" is a really strong word.  What do you know for sure?  You know that you love your family.  You know that you are a certain height.  There are some things that we can say with certainty...I know.

Then there are things that are beliefs and not certainties.  I only believe that I am a poor implementor.  Granted, I am basing this belief on years of experience, but it is still only a belief.  Nobody controls that belief except for me.  Now, I could start saying that I was a good implementor, but that wouldn't be a truth.  In my heart, I would still believe that I was not good at implementation unless I did something differently.

Ah, there it is.  You've heard it a dozen times at least...change your beliefs and change your life.  But, can you just flip a switch and change your belief?  I don't think so.  But, then again, that is my personal belief!

I've tried telling myself all kinds of stories to change my beliefs.  For a few days I might start feeling a little better.  I might be buying into the story that I was a great implementor.  And I might start making plans based on that story.  But, it faded...it always faded.  That has left me feeling like I didn't have the right stuff to change my beliefs.

Then I found a very cool blog that made that whole changing your beliefs thing a lot simpler.  ScottHYoung.com is a great blog by a very young man.  I read an entry in his blog and liked it.  I saw that he had challenged himself to learn the MIT Computer Science curriculum (4 years) in 12 months and decided he was a very cool dude.  So, I read a little more.

This young, can't be terribly experienced, man laid out a pretty good plan for changing beliefs.  He started with a plan (written down), an action to accomplish the plan and a weekly postmortem to review and adjust.  Do this for a month.  Accomplish the plan and see evidence of a changed result which will lead to being able to change your belief.

For someone like me, who needs black and white proof, this is the most straight forward way of changing beliefs I have ever seen.  In all the books that I have read, I've seen the statement, "change your beliefs and change your life."  What I didn't see was a plan!!

So, I am going to do some work to figure out which belief to start with.  I'll let you know how it is going!