Because this is where everything begins. We develop a belief system very early in life, based on our experiences with close family members. As we develop throughout childhood and adolescence we develop our values. We use our beliefs and values to chart the course of our lives, one decision at a time.
Our beliefs limit our possibilities. You might think you are immune to the power of common beliefs, after all you are intelligent, well educated and enlightened in modern sensibilities. I had a rude awakening when I was 18, that proved to me that everyone is subject to limiting beliefs, even when they think they have overcome them. Everyone who knows me knows that I don't let other people determine what I can do. From age ten I have accomplished every goal I set my mind to.
By age 18, when I was in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) at the University of Missouri I truly believed that if something was possible, I could do it. Why then, did I, and the other half dozen women in the NROTC unit struggle to perform the minimum number of modified (from the knee) push-ups for our physical readiness test? We worked out hard every day, running, and doing sit-ups and push-ups. Yet, we could not do more than 25 or 30 “girls” push-ups. Then one day during the following year's new freshman orientation one of the incoming female midshipmen pumped out 67 modified push-ups. She stopped at 67 because the scoring stopped at 67. She had maxed out on the push-up portion of the test. What happened the next time the whole unit took the test? Most of the women did 67 push-ups. What changed? Our belief changed.
Then, some time later the scoring changed and we were allowed to do more than the maximum for each section of the test so we could compensate in one or two areas in which we excelled for a section that we did not score as well, thus raising our overall score. I will never forget half a dozen women pumping out 99 or 100 push-ups. What changed? The sky was now the limit. There was no more maximum. If we could do 67 push-ups, we could do 70 or 80 or... Ah, but the story doesn't end there.
Those were modified push-ups. Several years later, when I was a lieutenant in the Navy, the test was changed and now everyone, men and women alike, are required to do standard, military push-ups. I knew I could do regular push-ups because I had stopped doing modified push-ups when I got tired of doing so many repetitions. I could get a better work-out by doing standard push-ups, and I did not need to suffer the scorn of my male colleagues if I did standard push-ups. But what about all the other women in the Navy, who were struggling to do their push-ups because they still had limiting beliefs about their ability to do push-ups? Once women realized that it was possible for them to do standard push-ups, they all lived up to their new beliefs. Today, everyone in the Navy takes the same physical readiness test. How did we get from struggling to do the minimum number of modified push-ups to doing that many or more standard push-ups? What changed? Our physiology has not changed in 10,000 years. Our belief changed. Then our actions changed to be in alignment with our new belief.
