Most people believe that there are external circumstances causing their problems, and I consider myself a card carrying member of that group.

When that belief becomes limiting, is when we believe that circumstance is always the culprit.

The biggest problem causer I encounter personally and professionally is the phenomenon of being boxed in by a belief itself, not circumstance.

Beliefs are conditioned, habit patterns that run in the background. We, for the most part, are unaware that they are there. Our unawareness does not keep them from directing our behavior 24-7.Think about it, our beliefs are alive and well even in our dreams.

Here’s the conundrum: Our beliefs keep us blinded to the facts that our beliefs aren’t working. That’s being “boxed in” by your belief.

I had a little doubt creep in about one of my beliefs last night and normally I would dismiss the doubt and proceed to justify what I believed. This time it was different. The Grasshopper intervened and gave me, as we used to say in the radio business, “The Phrase That Pays.”

Before I share the phrase with you, let me tell you what normally goes on with me when doubt about a belief enters the picture and I don’t dismiss it. I have a debate in my head. I go back and forth with all the logic I can muster regarding the pros and cons about the belief working or not working, and I always end up at the same place – Impasse.

That means the argument lives to fight another day.

So how can you suspend the argument AND suspend a belief that has you boxed in? Use this phrase that pays: “I don’t know what I believe.”

When you find yourself about to justify a belief or about to debate it until you drop, say this instead – “I don’t know what I believe.”

This phrase will pause your conditioning to justify your belief AND prevent you from engaging in another knock down, drag out debate.

“I don’t know what I believe” is such a freeing phrase. It takes away the concreteness of certainty and allows for the porosity that a new solution needs to enter.

A new way to unbox your beliefs is to not know what you believe.

It takes courage to not know. It’s not knowing that will get you curious, and your curiosity will get you to poke past the iron curtain of beliefs.

Try it out right now. Find something that you believe in that just may be causing you some mental distress and simply say, “I don’t know what I believe.”

This new mindset will create a void where something solid once stood. It’s into this void that a new way to go will flow.

It’s uncertainty that will unshackle you from the concrete pillars of knowing and lead you to a place of possibility.

If you want to open yourself up to some less concrete ways of thinking and behaving, start with this phrase: “I don’t know what I believe.”

All the best,

John