I have always had this feeling that I’m not good enough, but there’s always something inside that tells me that I could make something out of myself. It’s this essence of me for whatever reason that tells, if I have the courage to put myself out there, to try even if I fail. And because of this belief in myself to be courageous, thank goodness it made me excel in different aspects of life, from achieving fitness to business… So how is this of any help? Let’s look into more of this with this book by Nir Eyal, BEYOND BELIEF. The book builds on existing concepts, including Byron Katie’s “The Work,” and ideas that go all the way back to ancient Stoic philosophy. It simply presents them in a fresh and modern way.
Richard Uzelac’s Insight
We tend to move through the world under the impression that we are seeing reality in high definition. We trust our eyes, our gut feelings, and our “common sense” as if they were objective recorders of truth. But if you peel back the curtain of human psychology, you’ll find that we aren’t actually experiencing the world as it is; we are experiencing the world as we believe it to be.
Beliefs are the invisible architecture of our lives. They are the scaffolding upon which we build our careers, our relationships, and our self-worth. However, the most deceptive thing about a belief is that it rarely introduces itself as one. It doesn’t say, “Hello, I am a subjective interpretation based on a bad experience you had in the third grade.” Instead, it shows up as a “fact.” It masquerades as “just the way things are.”
1. The Illusion of Objective Truth
To truly understand the power of belief, we have to ask a difficult question: Is this a fact or an interpretation? Most of us struggle with this because the human brain is designed for efficiency, not necessarily for objective truth. To save energy, the brain uses “heuristics”—mental shortcuts that allow us to make quick judgments without processing every single detail from scratch.
When a belief has been running on “autopilot” for decades, it becomes a neural superhighway. If you believe “I am not a person people listen to,” your brain will actively scan your environment for evidence to support that claim while ignoring the times you were heard or respected. This is known as Confirmation Bias. It creates a closed loop where the belief reinforces the perception, and the perception justifies the belief.
The Trap: We don’t see things and then believe them; we believe things and then “see” them everywhere.
2. The Roots of the Muck: Fear and the Diva Critic
Limiting beliefs—the ones that start with I can’t, they won’t, or it’s impossible—are almost always protective mechanisms. They are “mucky” because they are tangled up in our history. Usually, these beliefs are generated by fear, perfectionism, or distorted memories from childhood.
At some point in your past, believing “I shouldn’t take risks” might have kept you safe from embarrassment or failure. The “Inner Critic,” that dramatic voice in our heads that surfaces in “full diva mode,” uses these outdated survival strategies to keep us in our comfort zone. But the comfort zone is a misnomer; it is often a place of stagnation. When we identify a belief as being born of fear rather than data, we strip it of its authority. We realize it’s not a law of physics; it’s just a story we’ve been telling ourselves to keep from getting hurt.
| The Belief (The “Story”) | The Data (The “Physics”) |
| “I’m bad at public speaking.” | “I felt an elevated heart rate during my last presentation.” |
| “They will think I’m annoying.” | “I have no evidence of their internal thoughts; they responded to my last email.” |
| “I can’t learn this new tool.” | “I have not yet dedicated 20 hours to practicing this specific interface.” |
3. The Alchemy of the Liberating Belief
Dismantling a structure that has been standing for years requires more than just “positive thinking.” It requires a rewrite of the internal script. However, the brain is quite good at spotting a lie. If you deeply believe “I am a failure” and try to force yourself to believe “I am a perfect success,” your psyche will reject it like a mismatched organ transplant.
A truly liberating belief is one that is expansive yet plausible. It moves the needle from a fixed state to a growth state:
| The “Old Script” (The Infection) | The “Positive Lie” (The Rejected Organ) | The “Bridge Thought” (The Successful Graft) |
| “I am a failure at this.” | “I am a world-class expert.” | “I am currently in the process of learning this.” |
| “Nobody wants to hear from me.” | “Everyone loves my ideas.” | “It is possible that some people find value in my perspective.” |
| “I’ll never get this right.” | “I am perfect and flawless.” | “I have solved difficult problems before, and I can iterate on this one.” |
My TakeAway:
“Believing” is an act of creative power. To believe in something—whether it’s your own potential, the kindness of others, or the possibility of change—is to choose the lens through which you view the world.
The autopilot is a comfortable place, but it is a small one. Every once in a while, it is worth pausing to ask: Is this actually true, or is it just a story I’ve been running on repeat? The answer to that question is often the difference between a life lived in a cage of “common knowledge” and a life lived in the open air of possibility. You are the author of the narrative, and you have the power to edit the script.
