What you believe always determines behavior. Yesterday, I attended a large Easter Egg hunt in a park for the kids of our Church. While it was a lot of fun and I loved mingling with and connecting with the families, I saw how belief determines behavior. I was reminded of how as a kid on Easter Sunday, I would wake up early with great expectation of the candy that the Easter bunny would leave for me. Then onto the Easter Egg hunt, knowing the Easter bunny had hidden eggs for me to find I would spend enormous amounts of energy searching until I found the final egg. (Somehow my parents always knew how many eggs the Easter bunny had hidden – it never occurred to me as a young child as to why.)
New Beliefs, New Behavior
Fast forward a few years: I am a young teenager and the concept of an Easter bunny is not something I am buying into. I no longer believe that a giant bunny delivers candy to my bedroom during the night and hides Easter eggs for me to find. My belief has changed and so has my behavior. At this point, I can sleep in until noon. The lure and excitement of candy in a basket is no longer a drive to wake up early. Regardless of how many eggs my parents said the Easter bunny had hidden, I gave it a good old college try and let the rest of the eggs stay hidden. (Unless of course I was assured that they was candy and or money in plastic eggs)
The Power To Have A New Outcome
Why did my behavior change so dramatically from my early childhood to teenage years? Simple, belief determines behavior. The power of this truth is this: the way you change the behaviors you feel and know are holding you back, keeping you from realizing your potential in life, is to change your beliefs. Spend a few moments and consider this truth. What behaviors, habits or routines are holding you back? Why are you allowing this to happen in your life? Know this, behind every destructive behavior, habit or routine is a belief that you must change in order to change the desired outcome.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV)
What lie are you believing that keeps you from unleashing your full potential? What steps can you take today to begin to change your beliefs to change your unwanted and undesired behaviors?