Belief’s a good or bad thing? Do they help us get ahead or hold us up?

Our hearts, belief and our needs motivate us. For example what we do in life in how we make money or what we do in our personal relationships or even and most important how we raise our children as they are our future. Certainly if the condition of the parent’s heart is not very good then it is little wonder why our children are having difficulties in relationships with other, school and even future goals. Most children don’t even see a hope of a future, which is why the do what they do and adopt an attitude of “live for today for tomorrow we die.”

One major problem with being motivated by beliefs alone is that our beliefs are just that, beliefs, which are not facts but a set of beliefs thinking what we know is true, instead of what we do know is true. In other words often our beliefs to us as individuals are more important than the facts and if fact then it is the truth. One example and its an old saying, “if it looks like a duck and sounds like duck, then its probably a duck.” That is a true statement, it’s probably a duck, but that’s the key word, “probably,” but that’s not an absolute, it’s a belief that it is a duck. It’s an assumption, which is a belief.

Some assumptions are good and fine, while others are not good. For example for the longest time no one could break the four minute mile. The reason was people thought it impossible to run any faster, until someone had a different belief, one that was more important than believing it was impossible to run the mile faster then in four minutes. This person that believed they could run faster, did break the world record and not only did he, but others have since then.

This should prove that beliefs can often be obstacles that keep a person from doing better. In this case the belief kept everyone from doing better. The fact is someone else with a different belief proved that the mile could be run in less time. The point of all of this is where were learn for the most part is from our cognitive years of our lives, from the ages usually from three to seven or eight and our greatest sphere of influence at that point is usually our parents, who may have had it together and knew everything there was to know about life or may not.

That’s well and good but if we as adults are still making decisions based on what we learned from 3-8 we are in serious trouble if the information or beliefs have not been updated. When we are motivated by these beliefs that we hold, then it is easy to prejudge what we hear or see or speak. This is called prejudice and keeps people from learning. We all know that prejudice hurts everyone, but prejudice seems to continue despite the fact everyone knows its wrong and it hurts others and even ourselves.

Can beliefs get out of hand? Major Religions

Most assuredly! On September 11, 2001, the heart of New York City was devastated after terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center. The twin towers, a prominent symbol of American financial might, were the first buildings to collapse. Four hijacked passenger jets have crashed in the US, destroying the World Trade Center in New York and damaging the Pentagon in Washington. Thousands of people were killed. Suspected hijackers on flight 11 have been named by the FBI as Waleed M Alshehri, Wail Alshehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and Satam Al Suqami. The FBI named the supected hijackers flight 175 as Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi. Suspected hijackers on flight 77 were named by the FBI as Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour. The hijacker who piloted the jet may have been Hanjour. Investigators believe they herded the passengers into the rear of the planeand switched off the transponder in the cockpit preventing the plane from being tracked. Air force jets were alerted - but they arrived after the plane had crashed. On flight 93 it is believed the hijackers were armed with knives and a box they claimed was a bomb. The FBI named them as Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrahi and Saeed Alghamdi. Investigators discovered Alghamdi and Alnamihad both previously lived in an apartment in Delray Beach, Fla.

We are not picking on anyone or religion, but the fact remains all of the hijackers believed that they were not only good people but doing god a service and everyone else a service in bringing down an evil nation or at least an evil financial institution. Although this may be an extreme of beliefs but it does show that beliefs motivated the hijackers. The beliefs came from teachings they learned where in order to be godly people they were to destroy evil people. Logic would tell us that all in the towers destroyed were not evil people. Perhaps some where, who can say, but it was a belief that created a situation and tragedy that people will not soon forget. We all have beliefs good and bad, but there needs to be a rational balance in those beliefs.

It should be obvious that the people responsible did not seem to know the truth and their lives where wasted as well as others. Its a graphic example of not knowing the truth and wasted lives, but if we are working on beliefs and half truths, then it is also a tragic waste of not only our lives, but those we influence including our families lives and our children's lives.

Motives: What Motivates us is a Condition of our Hearts

Motives move us all to do anything. After all why do anything if we are not motivated into doing something. Everyone has needs that often motivate us as human beings. Some are motivated by one or all of the following: Need to love or be loved. We all need love and we all need to give it. Survival or need for security or protection. Perhaps we look to others for our security financially. It’s a known fact many women yet today marry not because of love, oh they may love the person, but the deep need or desire is to have a financially secure future. The other motive we may have is having a purpose in life. Our purpose often times in our belief system brings us value or a perceived value. The problem with this is, often if we think we do not have a value unless to please others or live for a particular reason and that reason is gone, then there is no reason to go on. This often times happens with parents that try to stay together and live for the purpose of raising their children. Once the children are gone so is their purpose in life. The other major motivator is a need for variety. Life is dull if doing the same things over and over without variety.

Now here is the problem with being motivated by needs. Most needs are temporary and blow like the wind, so if we are making life changing decisions based on our needs then we cannot work to build sound relationships or a sound future and also impossible to reach our individual goals in life and in family. If the core of our being is need, then the core of or being is self and the only thing that can be produced is a self centered or shallow person that will use and abuse to get their individual needs or fantasy met. Motives and needs bring an end result good or bad.

Good Questions:

So one question is, “do we like life the way it is and if not is there anything we can do about life?” Do we like crime, our homes broken into or terrorist attacks, drug addiction and or alcohol and drug abuse, which is often the root cause of a host of other abuses? What type of legacy do we leave our children? Is there hope? Today as you read this there are some 14,000 that will starve to death and it happens each day. You might ask “what that has to do with you as an individual?” These are certainly good questions and each of us should ask ourselves, “why this is happening and who is responsible for what is happening, not just across the globe but even in our own back yards, in our streets and neighborhoods?” Is it possible to be free or be autonomous while these things continue to plague us?

There is a cost for all of this even though you may not see it. The cost in part besides a decaying society is higher taxes to pay for more government and more people to do something about what is happening. That may sound like a good solution, hiring others to take care of the needs or the problems, but what happens is instead of people really being helped more people are hired and costs go up for labor, buildings, office furniture, telephones and computer equipment, all of which has little to do with helping people, but it’s a belief that tells us these things are important to help someone.

The reason this all happens is because of a condition of the heart to either deal with the needs and problems or to pass the needs and problems to others and a high cost. It is a condition of the heart either way to either accept what is happening and the responsibility for what is happening or to pass that responsibility to someone else. The problem with passing the responsibility to others is not only the high cost of actually helping someone, we also give up our freedom to have others deal with problems and needs because it has to be paid for and that comes from higher taxes, which do not free us but enslaves us. It’s estimated just in America for example, that 45% of what we earn goes to higher taxes to pay for all of this. To me that does not sound like freedom but a form of slavery.

After reading this you may desire to throw up your hands and wonder what is the solution and the solution you will find is much closer than what you may realize or been led to believe. The solution to it all is a result of the condition of our hearts to either decide to do something about what is happening or decide not to do anything. That is a condition of the heart to start with and it gets deeper.

Process of Change:

The first step to fixing anything in life is to accept responsibility for what is happening. We teach our children this but doesn’t work to well if we are trying to dodge the responsibilities in our lives, because after all children listen to what we say, but they really watch what we do and most come out thinking parents are hypocrites. The facts are whether we like them or not, is that we as individuals are responsible….. When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, to either help them or reject them. If we reject them and their needs it is because we judge them not worthy of our help and if we begin to judge then we are not open minded, but closed minded and we become critical of others and stop learning, making things in life worse and not better for ourselves and our families. We all lead by example whether we see it or even agree with it or not. Each of us influences each other in a positive or negative way.

So you may after reading that and understanding that come up with “who cares?” It’s a natural and normal response, but what happens is it shows a lack of love and concern for others. The reason that is important is because in our personal relationships we either lover or love conditionally and if loving conditionally it becomes a selfish love. Who cares?

When we start adopting attitudes of who cares others see it and usually those closest to us and makes it next to impossible to build long term and lasting relationships with others, because we have an attitude of “who cares” and if we do it shows and others have an opportunity to use us. Victimization can be an endless cycle. In order to end the cycles in life we have to have a desire to do something different. Insanity defined is to continue to do the same things over and over and expect different results in our lives, in our work, relationships at home and our children’s lives.

Had enough? Ready to do something different and perhaps new concepts and then learn how to apply these concepts to your life, which become principles and wisdom? If so we can help.