Duration: [00:00:09] - [00:20:43]

Episode Overview:

Welcome to another episode of "Bl nk P ges," where I explore the intersection of beliefs and behaviors. In today's episode, I delve into the invisible links between our beliefs and our actions. I'll be sharing practical tools and resources for personal growth. Understanding how our beliefs shape our behaviors and, consequently, our lives and those around us is essential. I'll provide thought-provoking examples and outline five key steps for recognizing, evaluating, and potentially altering our beliefs to impact our actions and outcomes positively. Join me as we navigate the powerful influence of our beliefs and uncover the potential for positive change in our lives and the lives of others.

Key Points Discussed:

Beliefs and Behaviors:

• I discuss how beliefs act as a lens through which we view the world, formed by our experiences and cultural backgrounds.
• I explain that behaviors manifest these beliefs, essentially putting our beliefs into action.

Impact of Beliefs on Behaviors:

• I share an example of overworking due to the belief that success comes only from hard work, reflecting on personal experiences and their influence on shaping our actions.

Self-Evaluation and Recognition:

• I highlight the importance of recognizing our core beliefs and understanding the reasons behind our repeated actions.
• I discuss the role of self-awareness in personal growth and development.

Change Process:

• I talk about challenging and aligning our core beliefs with our current values and goals.
• I emphasize assessing the impact of our beliefs on ourselves and others.

Impact on Self and Others:

• I explain that understanding how altering our beliefs can lead to positive changes in our personal lives and those around us.

5 Key Takeaways:

• Beliefs as the Blueprint: Our thoughts form the foundation of our actions and behaviors.
• Awareness as the First Step: Recognizing our beliefs is crucial for understanding and modifying our behaviors.
• Change is Possible: Altering our beliefs can transform our behaviors and outcomes.
• Impact Beyond Self: Changes in our beliefs affect ourselves and those around us.
• Continuous Process: The modification of beliefs and behaviors is an ongoing journey.

FREE RESOURCE:

This worksheet is designed to guide you through a reflective process to identify a word that resonates with your aspirations, values, and goals for the upcoming year.

Get your One Word Worksheet HERE!

Additional Announcements:

• I'm working on helpful life resources and an email newsletter.
• I encourage listeners to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast.
• I mention a free resource for finding your "one word" for the year, available on my Instagram (@TimPecoraro) and in the newsletter.

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Blank Pages, the podcast. This is episode number 5, and I'm your host, Tim Pecoraro. And I'm so glad that you can join me today. Man, we're gonna have a great topic today, I believe. It's one that I'm always working on for myself, and I encourage others to do the same. And it's all about behaviors and beliefs or beliefs and behaviors, the invisible links, And, man, it's an important topic. But before we begin, I would like to say thank you all for listening to the show, and I just wanna encourage you to Subscribe if you would and rate their show, review the show, and and share it unless you feel led to do so. And I want you to know I'm working on several useful life resources that I believe are gonna help you make this year an incredible one that will become the foundation for even years to come.

These are simple tools, resources that are they're just practical. As simple as 1, 2, 3, not complicated things, to get your mind wrapped around, but they're simple, practical, BL tools, they're gonna be easy to comprehend and use. However, there's still gonna be a challenge with it For you to do your part, the hard part the hard part of doing the hard work of introspection, reflection, observation, Challenging you to change or maybe even transform your life to be what it was intended to BL, With you being the main protagonist in your story and not a character in someone else's or even everyone else's story. What else? Well, there's something else I'm working on a newsletter. I've an email newsletter that'll go out. It'll be monthly, and this is something I really am I've not been one to really get into a lot of newsletters ges with the things I've had to do, and I never really needed to do anything like that. But what I wanna do is just be able to create a resource at the end of Each or the beginning of each month starting in February, I believe, is the way it's gonna be set up now. And then we'll just collect all the things that have happened prior in that month ges kind of give you a summary kicking off the new month with also some vision for what's to come.

I'll be able to introduce new things I'm doing and so forth, so on. And I just promise you I'm not gonna, like, fill up your email box in your inbox. I don't wanna live in there. I don't want you to have to live in there. So Ges know I'm just excited about it, and I promise I won't overwhelm you with it. So please, if you would like to do that, you can go into my Instagram, Instagram I hear I said that Instagram. I don't even know where that came from. If you'd go to the link in my bio on my Instagram at Tim Pecoraro and simply sign up for the newsletter, that's a simple thing.

You can access the link there in the show notes as well. So I'm gonna put it in the episode show notes, but if you go to in my Instagram At Tim Pecoraro, if you go to my bio, you should be able to see the link there and join. And, again, I promise I'm not gonna blow up your Inbox with a bunch of stuff and offers. I just I don't wanna be in your head that way. I'd rather be in your head With some good things that you can be thinking about for your life and on your journey. So Here's the thing that I I wanna kinda get started with. I wanna give you just a a simple let me use, like, a little illustrations or a little story here. Ges just I want you to have an example of to be able to really grasp this thing on your belief in its relationship or the link, The invisible link to your behavior.

And a lot of folks, I I I mean, myself included, I think we underestimate The importance of really knowing your beliefs, not someone else's. What are yours and and how they impact you? And that it's also okay for you to evaluate your belief systems and look at them because I do believe we all Lose direction. I I believe everything can drift off course, and so it's very important for us to kinda got ourselves back. So so just imagine. Right? So just to kinda Illustrate this a little bit. Imagine someone named John. Right? A guy named John. A dedicated let's say he's a teacher who always believed that Strict discipline was key to student success.

And so this belief led him to a a rigid teaching style That without him knowing or unbeknownst to him, it ultimately stifled creativity in his classroom. Right? So Why am I bringing that up? Because we need to explore how our deepest beliefs, like John's, invisibly, Shape our behaviors and, consequently, our lives and the lives of those around us. I mean, I want you to think about that. That these our beliefs invisibly shape our behaviors. Do you hear that? Like, they shape them. And consequently, our lives and the lives of those around us. Obviously, if you're a parent, you understand that. And there's so much I'm gonna I'm gonna continue this for the next several weeks.

I'm gonna get even deeper into the belief system, and I'm also going to, speak about how that relates like your relationships? And I'm I'm really looking forward to how this New Year's gonna go and what we're I'll be doing in this Q1 of the year because I wanna get into all of that stuff into the behavior and the belief, into the relationships, and all of the things that are so important for us to be successful in our year. So I wanna lay those things and help us to do them right. So if we understand that our our these this invisible our beliefs invisibly will shape our behaviors. Right? And if that's true and consequently, our lives and lives of those around us, then we're gonna have to learn the importance, or understand the connection and the importance of understanding it. It's not just about self improvement. So We can't just look at this from a, oh, I'm just going to improve. It's about creating a world where our actions are in harmony or aligned with our true intentions. I like to let people know when I'm working with them.

And, you know, I've done this. I mean, many times I have failed miserably, That the thing that I intended to do came out different. The thing that was my intent was misunderstood or heard differently. That happens. And sometimes you can feel left without any remedy, and it's just the way it goes. And so you have to learn to align the impact and your intention. So if you know the in the impact you want, so you're gonna have to say, okay. Then I'll back up to what I intend to do And make sure the steps I take align with the impact I ultimately want.

Right? This is that's an EQ thing, emotional intelligence thing, which I know people call them soft skills, but that's why we're suffering because everyone goes after all the knowledge and the skill stuff. Like, the they wanna learn a trade or all these other things or how to To, you know, work on a soft skill bet I mean, a harder skill, a more defined skill, and then the soft skills as they call them, I think are the most important ones. The the ones that deal with your personal competency and understanding of your own self awareness and self management, as well as the social competency, Your social awareness and your relationship management. I know it's a lot, but And I know you've heard so many people talk about this, but let's just have this conversation. Let me just put this out there. And if you would, remember, nothing listens better than a blank piece of paper. If you have the you can review it later or go to the show notes and look at these things I'm gonna put out here for takeaways. Okay? But I wanna assure you of something, That the shaping of one's belief is influenced by a combination of universally recognized factors.

So what I'm gonna talk to you about is not just my viewpoint. This these are universally recognized factors. It's Influenced by the combination of these. And so I'm gonna list some of these out, and this is what I'll be doing in the next episodes coming. But It's influenced by culture and society. The culture and social environment in which a person grows up plays a significant role in shaping their beliefs. It's gonna include the traditions and the social norms and the collective values. Then there's the family influence.

And and the family beliefs and values are often passed down through generations significantly impacting a person's own belief system. And that's family influence or lack thereof or whatever would be considered family. Family could be like I, you know, I know what it's like when you're on your own, and family could be the community of friends that you make, and you just go do through different things. And if you're a child that grew up maybe with with 1 parent or no parents Or you grew up with grandparents. All those things have an impact. Then the education, be it formal, informal education, it's going to expose Individuals to different ideas, theories, and world views influencing their belief systems. That's what universities are supposed to do, but unfortunately, it looks like Universities are just they're just choosing sides and being directional in the way that they wanna go. Then there's personal experiences.

Right? Individual experiences, their interactions with other people, their achievements, challenges, All of those will contribute to shaping beliefs and religion and spirituality. Religious teaching, spiritual experiences, Those are gonna have a big impact on your beliefs and values. Media, oh my gosh, and information sources. I'm one of those people listen. You're gonna listen to the news, listen to all of it, listen to every side, don't just pick your favorite because what's gonna happen is you're going to only listen to the thing that aligns with you. And what's so funny is especially with some of the people I know, and they talk about unconscious bias and bias and all this other stuff. And I'm like, literally, all their sources comes from their bias Opinions, they don't use anything else. And so it's very hard for people to listen to that when when you tell someone to be an open minded person or have an open person or have an open mindset, but yet you are open to options in your open mindset.

I wonder if that's still a fixed mindset, BL I digress. Let me move back where I am. Peer influence. It's another one. Friends in social groups can impact beliefs, especially During your formative years, how about the economic and political environment? The the economic conditions and and what's going on in in politics and What you grow up in and around and what you allow yourself to listen to that's gonna once again shape your beliefs about society, governance, and economics, Science and technology. Scientific discoveries and technology advancements will definitely influence beliefs about the world and Our place in it, your place in it, their place in it, however you wanna view it. And then there's psychological factors. These are the cognitive biases.

The mental health and psychological development, these are all gonna play a role in how beliefs are formed and maintained. So, I mean, that's a lot. I know it's a lot. And I wanna know I want you to know I'm gonna come back to those in a at a later date, BL I want you to see that I'm coming at this in a whole from a holistic point of view. I really wanna be helpful. I mean, my goal is that I want you to know that I care about you, I Add value and that you can trust me. That I am working on that. I'm working to earn that.

Right? And so, hey, here we go, on this topic. So let's define beliefs and behaviors. Right? So let's start here. And this is the core of what I'm gonna talk about. Beliefs are the lens through which we view the world, formed by our experiences and cultural backgrounds. So they're gonna manifest in our behaviors which then are basically our beliefs in action. That's what it is. So let me say it again.

Beliefs are a lens through which we view the world. NK. It's formed by our experiences and our cultural backgrounds, And they manifest in our behaviors which would be considered your belief in action or which is your beliefs in action. So that's the definition. So the second thing is let's talk about the impact of those beliefs on your behaviors. So for instance, If someone believes that success only comes from hard work, guess what? They might overwork themselves Ignoring other aspects of their life. I know that. And I could do it all for the right reason.

There are so many things I missed when my kids were growing up because I was hard at work, and I didn't see a lot of those things. And, yes, those are those are things that Looking back, obviously, hindsight's 2020. I would do different, but my belief system told me that that's what you do. You work hard and you do your things. I was present when I was with My my kids and doing stuff with them. However, it was so still, it was like the rest of me or what was left of me at times more so than the best of me. And it was because my belief was driving that behavior so much that I gave myself the freedom To not feel bad about it because it was what I knew to do. You always work hard.

There's no excuse. Provide for your family. Take care of that. However, that's my story, and I've told people this. There's a story. That's one thing, but then there's the message. And I've said this in in the, previous podcast, but So what is the message I was telling my kids? That's gonna come from that's the impact of beliefs on my behaviors And then resulting in missed time or things that happened because of how I grew up. So once I had that revelation, I needed to do this third thing.

Had to have a self evaluation and recognition, or, you know, this is what I had to do. I had to recognize my own core beliefs, And I had to start reflecting on the reasons behind my repeated actions. Like, why do I repeat that? Why do I still go to work? Or what about just sometimes if you're just mean? What if sometimes you joke too much, you goof off? What if, like I mean, there's a lot of things. You just gotta know where it comes from. And look. It's it's it's okay. Right? And it's okay to to have those things happening. But what's not okay is for us not to understand going back to our personal competency, Having our own self awareness as well as our own self management.

These are key. These are important for us to know, and only way you're gonna find out is through self evaluation and recognition. So a great question to ask yourself is this, why? That's a purpose question. Do I always react this way in this situation? That's just an example. Now the 4th thing is you wanna work on the change process. Right? So the first one, you gotta define your beliefs and behaviors. Second is, what's the impact of beliefs on behaviors? The third is Self evaluation and recognition. The 4th is the change process.

Okay? So changing a core belief starts with challenging it. Ask yourself, is this belief always true? Does this align with my current values and goals? How does this impact the people around me? And if it does or the impact that it does have on them around me, is it positive or negative? And the only way to find that out is you're gonna have to have conversations and ask. So once again, this is the process of change. You have to ask yourself, is this true? Is it always true? Does it align with my My current values and goals, do I need to reassess those? And then ultimately, how's it impacting those around me? Right? Which that is the key into number 5. The impact on self and others now. So those questions now, when you get to that last one, the impact of others, you have to go into step 5, which is basically saying, I've gotta look at this. I have to realize that altering a belief can lead to significant positive changes. So let's go back to that story of John where I've mentioned in the very beginning where John was his teacher, real strict.

It just kinda stifled the creativity in the room. Right? It ges sucked the life right out of it. So for John, embracing a belief in the power of creativity transformed not just his teaching style, BL also his students' learning experience. So once John recognized that that strict way of doing things was robbing creativity, Once he loosened that up, the creativity thrived, and the students' learning experience changed. Remember, that's the key. It's getting the student right? If he's a teacher, the goal is for them to learn. What we wanna do is teach the way we would like to. And sometimes what we have to do is change.

We're still teaching, but change our approach. In order my oh, in order to maximize beyond a one to 1 setting, a group, you know, a group full of people, We need to maximize the opportunity for everyone in the room to learn. That's like the podcast. Every week, I just work on just, know, I wanna present it the way I wanna present it, but I also wanna be mindful of who's listening to make sure that I can reach them in a clear way. So back to the core of this. These are the 5 things. Number 1, define beliefs and behaviors. Number 2, you wanna find out what's the impact of beliefs on behaviors.

3, you wanna do self evaluation and recognition. And 4, you wanna work on the change process. And then number 5, you wanna have that impact on self and others. You wanna look at that. So these are gonna be your key takeaways. Right? I want you to think about it as beliefs are the blueprint. So our beliefs form the blueprint of our actions. They are the unseen architects of our behavior.

I'm gonna say it again. That beliefs Form the blueprint of our actions, and they are the unseen architects of our behaviors. The second thing is awareness is your first step. Becoming aware of these beliefs is like turning on a light in a dark room. Right? Wow. I can see. Even the smallest light can shed the greatest insight in a dark situation. See, suddenly, everything becomes clear when you turn the light on, and that's all we need.

And when the light comes on, don't be afraid. Don't Don't run. Just look at it, embrace it, and make some different decisions. And then change is possible. The third thing you need to understand, It's empowering to know that by altering our beliefs, we can change our behaviors and, ultimately, our outcomes. And then the 4th, impact beyond self. These changes will ripple out affecting not only us, but also those Those that are around us in profound ways. So I'm looking for that ripple effect.

I do want to make sure just as equally as I've impacted Did people in the negative in the past, which we all have, if you're honest, you have. And some people run. Some people are so afraid to know that they've done it. They may know it, but they get away from it. I think the best thing you can do is just recognize those places where that has happened and then work on the change. And this time, that change now creates a new ripple, One that's gonna have a powerfully positive impact, new impact, different way. And then the 5th is continuous process. Just remember that this is a continuous journey, and our beliefs evolve as we do.

And it's okay to revisit and revise them. So I wanna conclude by simply saying that our beliefs are powerful, silent guides of our actions. Grab a hold of that picture, would you? That's, that's pretty strong. And if you're Wondering about what you're doing, and you're seeing your behaviors, this you gotta go back to your beliefs. You gotta see how it impacts you in the lives of others. And, also, for those of you who are still working on your your one word for the year, guess what? I have a free resource. Go into my Instagram at Tim Pecoraro. Look at the bio link, and you can click on the, the newsletter, and you will see the availability for the resource there or should be on the link itself for the newsletter.

It's a free resource. I would encourage you to use it. It'll help you find your one word. And if you need a little help, Shoot me a DM in, Instagram, and I'll see what I can do to help you along. Until then, continue to fill up those Blank pages. And remember, nothing listens better than a blank piece of paper. Your story is worth writing. And even though you have less pages in front of you, it Seems the older we ges, however, you should be able to write much better the more you figure this thing out.

So until next time, I'll talk to you later.