Beliefs are very important – not for what they are but for what they represent. Virtually everything from actions people decide to take to the way they perceive a situation is dependent on the beliefs they hold. All together these beliefs are the building blocks of something called Inner Game.
Inner Game is something that is always there, like a shadow, and by understanding exactly how to manage these beliefs is what separates those who succeed from those who aren’t as successful.
The primary discovery of the Inner Game is that, especially in our culture of achievement-oriented activities, human beings significantly get in their own way. The point of the Inner Game is always the same — to reduce mental interferences that inhibit the full expression of human potential. – Barry Green, The Inner Game of Music
The beliefs we hold are at least as important to the outcome as the skills required to achieve the said outcome. For example, if your belief is that you can find a convenience store, you wouldn’t hesitate (or get in our own way) to drive to one for a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning. This seems trivial, but if you don’t know the neighborhood such a task might take quite some time – and naturally lead to some anxiety.
Fortunately many of our beliefs come predominantly from our experience and to a lesser extent from what we are taught. Unfortunately beliefs have a way to multiply, spawn new beliefs and ultimately by late teenage years people have a very wide, interleaved web of beliefs which influence their actions. Because each belief is attached to one or several others, as more ideas and convictions are established it becomes more and more difficult to change any one particular belief.
This is great for managing experiences, and horrible for changing outcomes. The good news is that changing beliefs is a relatively easy process. It’s not always comfortable or predictable, but there is no a complex requirement or procedure needed.
The easiest way to think of Inner Game is as an organism, a human for example, and each idea as a muscle. An activity like writing (or typing) only requires the use of a small group of muscles. Swimming or martial arts, on the other hand, require use of many muscles. Beliefs are very similar – some activity requires only one or two beliefs to be complete successfully, others require most if not all – if just one is out of synch, success comes much harder.
Because our brain only accepts beliefs if they can be connected to other beliefs it is easiest to replace old ideas with newer ones.
As I mentioned before, ideas and beliefs which all together represent Inner Game as predominantly arrived at through experience. The more experiences are there to support a certain belief, the stronger it will be and over time the more connections to other ideas it will have. A spider web of sorts.
Because of this, new beliefs are developed not outright but by modifying the experiences. As you experience changes, so will your beliefs. The stronger the experience, the more emotional it is, the greater effect it will have on a particular belief. A classic example of the baby and the radiator illustrates this very well.
The many times parents tell a child not to touch the radiator (academic learning) is no where near as strong an experience as touching it and being burned is. Because being burned is a more intense experience (and more emotional one) the belief is ingrained much faster and lasts for much longer. If moved to a land where only cold radiators exist, the belief that touching radiators is painful will be replaces by one where it isn’t.
Similarly, improving Inner Game directly is impossible – just like building muscles directly is impossible. The fastest, simplest (not to be confused with easiest or comfortable) way to replace detrimental beliefs with positive, constructive ones is through experience. There must be experience or observation to support a belief – otherwise it is dismissed and ineffective.
At it’s core, beliefs are based on experiences. And improving Inner Game is only possible through improving your experiences. Without supporting experiences, beliefs aren’t relevant – and neither is Inner Game. It’s just as if it doesn’t exist.
