Believe it or not

Have you ever seen elephants tethered to a slender rope attached to a little peg and wondered how something the elephants could easily break away to naturally hold them?

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This is because they were just babies and they only needed a thin rope around their single foot which they would try to break free, but they never could. Whenever they struggle with it, whenever they try to break free they realize that they’re only injuring themselves. And then comes the time when the stop with the tug and pull and give up.

But they never realize that they can try to break free again. They’re still living in their past belief that they don’t try to break free when they become giant mammals years later. They go on telling themselves that they’re tied up with an unbreakable knot. You may think why am I suddenly talking about such animal cruelty? I will get to that point.

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Similar behavior has been seen in experiments with fish. When a predatory fish is placed in a smaller tank with the bigger tank and the bigger tank is filled with small fishes of the predatory fish’s liking, it tries to eat the small fish. The massive fish can see them but whenever it tries to rush to them, inevitably just hits the glass. It tries a few times but eventually gives up altogether.

Even when the inner tank is removed and therefore the small fish swim directly around it, the massive fish not even tries to eat them. Now, directly to the point. Our beliefs have a serious influence on our actions and therefore the choices and decisions we make. And ultimately, how our lives end up.

These are samples of the facility of conditioning and believe it or not. In other words, how a significant or constant event can shape our point of view.

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We will be even as vulnerable to conditioning because of the predatory fish or maybe the mighty elephant. Sure, we are more intelligent than animals and would be unlikely to fall for the above examples. But we can’t deny that what we are used to seeing and believing, doesn’t have an impact on how our minds and judgments.

I have a problem when people say something's real or not real, or normal or abnormal. The meaning of those words for me is very personal and subjective. I've always been confused and never had a clear-cut understanding of the meaning of those kinds of words. - Tim Burton

Some people have highly protective parents who from an early age sheltered them from the world and made most of their plans and decisions for them. Perhaps they often rebelled and followed a course against the desire of their parents, and things didn't compete, or they are caught and punished. Such people could get older to be easily influenced by people and be easier to going with the flow and following people instead of leading.

They can become familiar with not taking the initiative and would like to not need to make their own decisions.

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It's not only parents, teachers, and other authority figures which will cause negative conditioning - we will very easily roll in the hay to ourselves. I'm sure we've all tried something once or even a couple of times that did not compete, and we've believed ever since that we just can't do this thing.

Now, this might be all alright if you had no interest in, say, knitting or flower arranging, and only went by to the classes and tried it to make your crush happy. But what about if you're stopping yourself from doing something, you're curious about and are sure you'll genuinely enjoy because you've convinced yourself you cannot do it?

Our beliefs can empower us - or hold us back and have negative effects on us in many various ways.

They can certainly stop us from living fulfilling lives. They will even stop us from even believing we aren’t entitled to anything but an average life.