Didn't get the job? Maybe you're just a bad interviewer. Failed the test? Maybe you're just bad at math. Always struggled with managing finances? Maybe you just aren't good with money. Always late? Maybe you're just disorganized.

"Beliefs are our brain’s way of making sense of and navigating our complex world. They are mental representations of the ways our brains expect things in our environment to behave, and how things should be related to each other—the patterns our brain expects the world to conform to. Beliefs are templates for efficient learning and are often essential for survival."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/201810/what-actually-is-belief-and-why-is-it-so-hard-change

Through experiences we've had throughout our lives. The more similar these occurrences the more reinforced those beliefs become.

"Beliefs allow the brain to distill complex information, enabling it to quickly categorize and evaluate information and to jump to conclusions. For example, beliefs are often concerned with understanding the causes of things: If ‘b’ closely followed ‘a’, then ‘a’ might be assumed to have been the cause of ‘b’."

Beliefs are formed through an attempt to categorize and identify complex information quickly. It's an attempt to save time and energy. An automatic behavior. To change these beliefs you need to interrupt that automatic behavior and replace the connection.

For example, if you hold a belief that you always screw up interviews it's because you have had bad interviews in the past and have connected that to your sense of self. Your job now is to slow down that reaction to the interview. We do this through analysis.

- Journaling

- Speaking thoughts out loud

- Reflection