The amazing Lisa O’Neill recommended that I read the book “Useful Belief” a couple of weeks ago in a session that she was hosting. I picked up the book at my local library and was really surprised (in a good way) when I was able to read the book – back to back in an hour and a half. More importantly, the book was full of useful lessons that can help us lead a better life.
My one sentence take from the book is very simple.
Most of what we believe is not true anyway. So, why not believe in something that helps us make the most of any given situation.
So, as a leader (or as an individual – remember, leadership is not a position, it is a decision), we come across many situations on which we have little to no control. In such situations, instead of trying to struggle with the situation, what Chris expects us to do is to look at the situation and decide what is the most useful thing that I can believe about the situation that can help me move forward towards my goal.
This is not about positive thinking. This is not about wishing for something. This is about believing in something that can help us keep moving forward.
The key insight here is that “Truth is subjective anyways” and “Most of our belief’s are not necessarily true either”. However, our belief about that drives our attitude and behaviour. If we believe something is good for us, we tend to act in a way that is very different to when we believe something is not good for us.
What Chris has done in the book brilliantly, is to take this key insight and weave it into a short fable and make it easier to consume. Whilst some might think that this is positive psychology, wrapped in a different package, I personally think that this insight comes from the wisdom traditions of the East.
Irrespective of what we think about this, I personally believe that it is a useful belief by itself to explore and put what Chris talks about in the book in practice in our lives and see how it goes. I think it would definitely work well for me (see that is a useful belief by itself).
If you would rather watch Chris speak about the concept, you can watch him here.
Here is a useful belief that Mike Shipulski talks about – Everyone is doing their best, even though it might not look that way. Just believing this helps us respond to situations a lot more calmly and with empathy. It reduces our stress and as a result the stress of people that we come in contact with.
Here is a useful belief that Erika Anderson is talking about – Change Doesn’t Have to be Difficult, Costly, and Weird. Just believing that the upcoming change might be useful, helpful and rewarding can help us better respond to changing situations (which we are seeing a lot of recently) better. It might even make us like these changes.
So, the question is, what is a useful belief that can help you move forward right now?
