Here’s what I think: Beliefs are a liquid medium.  (See what I did there?)

They are malleable, subject to change and revision, flow from one container to the next, and can get heated.

Our opinion and beliefs often become held as truths.  When that happens, they freeze into solidity and can be very hard to move, shift, drop or change.  Really though, they are all temporary.  At some point, we did not have these beliefs, but they got poured into us by culture, family, friends, experience and zeta-rays from Beta Centauri.  (Sorry, Betans, I believe someone had to say something…)

Stephen Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People relates a story illustrating how liquid, and changeable, our beliefs can be.  He was on a New York subway train on a Sunday morning enjoying a quiet ride.  All the passengers were keeping to themselves and resting peacefully.  At a stop a man gets on with two boys in high gear.  The man sits quietly down in a seat next to Covey and closes his eyes while his two boys run rampant around the car, making lots of noise and bothering people.  Finally Covey decides to say something to the man, suggesting he should rein in his boys.  The man replies slowly, “I suppose you’re right.  We just came from the hospital where their mother died an hour ago.  I don’t know what to think, I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”

Instantly, Covey’s view on this man and the whole situation was radically shifted.  His beliefs were re-arranged in an instant.

Here’s an awesome clip of Sean Stephenson relating how he helped shift a little girl’s beliefs in a way that forever altered her life:

Beliefs are not true. They are not facts.  They are beliefs.   They are opinions.  They can be changed.  I have found that the best way to help this happen is to heat up your beliefs with friction.  Move them around.  Bump them up against each other.  Spin them on their heads and see what they look like from different angles.  Ask questions about them.  Invite questions about them. Entertain alternatives.

Doing that, can keep your belief system (your BS) mobile, fluid and quickly adaptable to whatever reality may deliver to you.

So, how do you keep your beliefs moving?  I’d love to know!  Please leave a comment below.

Cheers!