Therefore, you can change your life by changing your beliefs or perceptions.

First, I might need to clarify my definition of beliefs and perceptions and how I see them to be slightly different. A belief is something you hold to be true. It may or may not be accurate, but it’s part of your programming. The way you perceive something is how you interpret something occurring external to you. It’s the input you run through your programming. You may hold an accurate belief but misperceive something or you can perceive something accurately but your beliefs have a negative impact on that perception.

Your belief system and how you perceive a situation work together to impact your thoughts and feelings. Here’s an example. You hold the belief that “I’m a terrible public speaker.” Your boss asks you to talk in front of a group and you immediately get nervous. You heard something in your boss’ voice and start to think “She wants me to fail. She’s out to get me.” You start thinking about how badly this will go.

Your thoughts and feelings influence your behavior. So, you finally get up in front of the group. By this time, your thoughts have created a whirlwind of tension. You forget what you want to say and you stumble a lot. You’re so worked up that you drop your notes and, of course, you forgot to number them!

Your behavior drives how others see you and creates your life for you. Your performance was mediocre and the feedback from the audience reinforces your original thought that you’re not a good speaker. Your boss is disappointed. She really thought you were management material but now she has second thoughts about giving you that promotion. Your performance impacts how others relate to you. This, in turn, gets reflected back to you. You reinforce your beliefs and perceptions and the cycle continues, creating your life around you.

Now, what if you hadn’t misread your boss’ motives and had gone in with the belief that “I know what I’m talking about and I know there’s at least one person that’s going to find what I have to say interesting or valuable. I have a chance to connect with at least one person here.” See the difference?

I was talking with another coach recently and he brought up a Cherokee parable that reinforces this topic.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

So, which wolf are you feeding? How can you change your beliefs or the way you perceive the world to create a better life for yourself?

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We all seek “happiness.” It means something different for everyone. For some, it comes from a material place; you have everything you want. For others, it’s emotional with all of your needs being met. Some believe that being happy is our main goal in life, however, there’s more to life than “happiness.”

In his book Flourish, Dr. Martin Seligman discusses how the field of positive psychology has moved beyond the idea of happiness being the ultimate measurement of a satisfied life. Someone that is happy has positive emotions, are engaged and their life has meaning and purpose. A truly flourishing individual, however, also needs to exhibit at least three of the traits that indicate well-being: self-esteem, optimism, resilience, vitality, self-determination and positive relationships.

In my coaching business, I use Gallup’s WELLBEING assessment. This assessment looks at whether you’re thriving or merely surviving in five different areas: your career, social engagements, financial and health situations and community involvement. The individual qualities identified by Dr. Seligman can come into play in each of these areas. For example, many of my clients have less than thriving scores in the realms of finance and health; usually directly related to low self-esteem and optimism and a sense that they have lost the ability to determine their future. Once we uncover some new options and they start moving forward in their life by making some choices (and sometimes taking some risks) their scores start to improve.

So, what can do on your own to foster a higher sense of well-being and move towards flourishing? It comes down to the core of what coaching offers and this really isn’t any secret; you need to change the way you see the world. You’ve read this in some of my other posts and have likely seen it elsewhere: the way you perceive the world directly impacts your thoughts and emotions and those drive your behavior. If you don’t like your actions or thoughts, you need to change the way you see things. Here’s an example, you’re miserable at work. You feel like there’s no place to go, you’re not appreciated and the work is mind-numbing. This would likely reflect in your performance at work. Instead of feeling like you have no power of self-determination, look at your options. You can find a new job, start improving your skills to switch careers or, even better yet, look at your perceptions around THIS job and see if you can create something new for yourself. You always have choices; sometimes it just takes some reflection to see them clearly. As a bonus, once you start to take control of your life, your optimism and self-esteem will increase too.

If you’re curious where you stand on things like optimism, resilience and relationships, the University of Pennsylvania offers a few free assessments you can take in the form of short questionnaires. Also, if you’re interested in trying the WELLBEING assessment, you can purchase a copy here. I’d also enjoy the opportunity to talk through your results with you. You can block out some time on my calendar for a no-cost session just as a chance to get to know each other.

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I’ve worked with a few people recently that said they were lacking motivation. This is actually a great coaching topic because the answer can only come from within. No one can make you motivated. However, our perceptions can be molded through study and contemplation. We can be inspired by others. I went looking for individuals that had successfully motivated themselves to achieve great things with regard to adopting a healthier lifestyle. I found a few stories that could help you change the way you look at your own challenges.

First, there’s Eli Sapharti. In his own words, Eli made a journey from FAT Boy to FIT Man. He lost 110 pounds to be in the best shape of his life in his 40s. He has now devoted his life to helping others do the same.  Next, I learned about Rick Wyckoff who is “Constructing a New Rick” on Facebook. Rick struggled with obesity since childhood. Now, this mild-mannered but driven individual is recording his weightloss and engaging others to join him in a very active community he has built on Facebook. Finally, I discovered Nathan MacDonald, the Fotographing Fat Kid. Nathan is documenting his “epic battle” to lose weight in a simple but informative blog. (He’s always wanted one, now he has one.)

What do these three men have in common? They all developed a very clear vision of where they wanted to go and why they were going there. I’m guessing the “how” and “when” may have sometimes still been very valid questions, but you get a sense from their writing that they no longer question their destination.

How can their stories help you? Simply follow their lead. If it isn’t already cemented in your brain, consider the change you need to make to reach a healthier lifestyle. What will the change provide? How will it make your life better? Who else is involved? (Maybe you’re “doing this for the kids.”) What are the costs if you don’t change?

Other questions will start popping up too. “What if I fail?” is, unfortunately, pretty popular. Well, I’d come right back with a follow-up question…“What if you succeed?”

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