You have been receiving emotional programming since you were a small child. In your early years, the programming was coming from your parents, siblings, teachers, and friends. However, in the modern world, this programming can also come from TV: films, reality shows, commercials, and even broadcast sporting events.

As the name suggests, broadcast media programs (internet, television, radio) are segments of content intended to reflect images of emotions to which we are susceptible?  It is this emotional programming that is one of the foundations for our belief system. Our beliefs directly influence our patterns of behavior and our habitual emotional responses.

For example: If you were growing up in a family of harsh and consistently critical parents, chances are that your parents instilled in you low self-esteem and the belief that you were not good enough. If at the same time, you were missing a positive reinforcement from other influential people in your life, there is an even greater possibility you inherited the same belief system from that family. We all learn by example, and what we learn is eventually absorbed into our own personality.

The challenge with the “programs” that we all run on is that they are operating at both a conscious and unconscious level. Some of our conscious beliefs are not in alignment with our unconscious beliefs. In fact, they actually contradict one another.

What is the fastest way to recognize if you have contradicting beliefs? If your outcome is exactly the opposite of what your desires are!

You may tell yourself and everyone around you that you really want to get into this very cool business venture. (That’s a story about myself for a different time.) You may spend time researching and coming up with this great idea of how you are going to execute this dream business. You even invest some money into new equipment and convince yourself to wake up early to spend more time on this project. Everything seems to be going in the right direction, and for a few months you succeed. You start seeing great results in a short period of time.  But eventually, you fall back into your old patterns, and begin self-sabotaging the work you already completed.

I’ve done this so many times. Why this is happening? How is it possible that despite your best intentions, your results are so different? When we don’t achieve the results that we intend to get, it’s because something else is more important. You might say: “But I really want this change” or in my situation: “But I really want to succeed in this project. I want to prove myself and my family that I can do this. What could be more important?”

Every change has a positive and negative consequence. What would be a negative consequence of being a successful entrepreneur, you ask? When I was growing up, I was always looking up to my older brother, four years my elder. He was my protector and my hero. In first grade, I struggled with some reading and language disabilities, which later on would be diagnosed as dyslexia. At the time, no one would exactly give my parents a specific diagnosis besides me being “slower” than other kids. My parents couldn’t afford a special education teacher that could help me and work with me after school. My mom came up with an excellent idea — my brother would be my “teacher” and every day after school, we spent a few hours playing the roles of “student” and “professor.” The experiment paid off and within a few months, my grades started improving. This was a very fulfilling role for my brother as well. By helping me in my school challenges, he was receiving unlimited praise from my parents. We also formed an incredibly strong bond in the process.

In the third grade, my mom came up with another excellent idea to motivate us in our school achievements. A few months before the end of a school year, she told us that whoever could bring her the best grades would get to go with her to this amazing trip outside of the city we lived in. This award sounded so incredible at the time, but I knew there was little chance of me being the one that won. Despite that, I decided to give it my best. Little did I know that by the end of that school year, I would be one of the students graduating with honors.

As I’ve learned, later on, no one expected me to win this challenge, including my mom. This also created some wedge between my brother and I. I no longer “needed” him, I was the one that was “better” than him. What seemed to be an empowering experience that allowed me to think of myself as a “winner” created a sense of jealousy in others and caused those I love to withdraw. My brother wouldn’t talk to me for weeks after that incident. My mom, seeing how disappointed my brother was, told us that my school achievements were from “pure luck” and completely discredited my hard work. On some deeper unconscious level, I felt ashamed and blamed myself for making my family uncomfortable. I’ve developed this limiting belief that success brings a lot of rejection and it is a lonely place to be, so I resist achievements.

Even though I want to be a successful entrepreneur, my unconscious belief says something else. That belief tells me that my success will cause me great pain. Most people carry around unconscious beliefs that often come from childhood and end up limiting their ability to be present, here and now. The number one question is how do we break a cycle of limiting beliefs that don’t serve us anymore?

The first step to breaking the cycle is to recognize a limiting belief and define the “benefits” of that belief. This necessary step takes a lot of courage and requires that you face up to your deepest fears. Honesty is the key.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself: What’s driving my results on the unconscious level? What are the benefits of not having what I want? What have I been in denial about?

The second step is more pleasant but also takes commitment and willingness on your part. If you can commit to 20 to 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days, you can break a pattern of self-sabotaging belief and replace it completely with a new, more constructive belief. Many people notice amazing results after 2 to 4 days. I created those short mp3 recordings to help you overwrite the programming that has been running your life for years, even decades. Very soon, your beliefs of not being worthy of being loved, or that life is a struggle, or that there was never enough or that you are not enough or that the world isn’t a safe place will fade and lose their control over your emotions and behaviors. Remember: you are a creator of your life and your creations start in your thoughts. The pattern of your thoughts that keep you stuck can easily be replaced. Reprogram-Yourself!!! Your new life of freedom, passion, and aliveness awaits!