Personally, I have a great prejudice against beliefs. Beliefs are merely imaginary devices accepted as facts. As a result of considering them as facts a lot of people accept lunatic ideas and fantasies as real. That can lead to ruinous courses of actions. I know because I lived through such experiences. I carried out plans and devoted great efforts to schemes based upon the most fantastic of notions and this led to calamitous results, desperate circumstances, embarrassment and humiliation.

Many people cling to beliefs as a drowning man clings at straws. Strangely enough though, they’d rather drown holding onto that straw than to release it and kick and paddle and swim upwards to break through the surface into life giving air above. My recent forays into playing poker have taught me that few people can admit to a mistake and cut their losses once they have started to back what they think is a winning hand. Blaming capricious chance is much more acceptable than accepting personal responsibility for poor decisions. Those who succeed at the stock market or at gambling cut their losses quickly in order to have the capacity to back their winning hands strongly. What we believe filters our reality and hence our options. Whether we have a winning hand or not depends largely on what hand we create for ourselves and how we choose to play it.

I choose to counter beliefs by turning them into testable theories (the details of which are given in this article: Turn Beliefs Into Theories). This reverts control back to me rather than to superstition. A dispassionately researched and tested theory leads to clear insight, understanding, new methods and skills to deal with a perceived problem. Eradication of the problem is not guaranteed but better containment and adjustment to dealing with it always results. However, testing theories rather than submitting to beliefs does take some of the emotional drive out of things. The fantastic nature of an enriching belief can give solace in darker moments when failed experiments have left me feeling frustrated and disappointed.

A benefit of beliefs is that they can offer certainty where in reality none exists. The certainty of a belief is almost always built upon a false premise (a belief that always translates into reality becomes a fact and is no longer a belief). Fulfilling a result can justify the belief but that doesn’t mean that the belief guaranteed the result. The crux of the problem for a non-believer is how to create certainty where none exists and how to develop the drive to keep going with difficult things.

Creating Certainty

I cannot predict with certainty, nor guarantee, that any particular course of action that I take with a series of long-term efforts can deliver the result that I want. Too many variables exist to do that, especially when the end result depends upon having things that I don’t currently have (skills, resources, events, people etc). A belief could probably wash over all of that uncertainty with ease but it wouldn’t magic up the result. Instead, I choose to look forwards and work out a process that could deliver the result that I want. I can look at all of the things within that process that I can and cannot control. For those things that I can control and for which I have the competence to deliver, little uncertainty exists. For those things that I cannot control plenty of uncertainty exists and that can prove mightily discouraging.

To deal with uncertainties I seek solace in the balance of probabilities. I consider what actions might lead to the result that I want and what I personally can do about them. For example, I write a blog and I would like to generate a large readership so that I can earn forms of income as a result. I cannot control the levels of readership (unless I continuously buy it, which I cannot afford and would be self-defeating). I am at the whim of a good many variables in that process that I can never hope to control accurately. I read a lot about how to build traffic and I subscribe to a couple of training courses on the subject. In general, I prefer targeted approaches to doing things over which I can exert decent levels of control based upon skills and experience that I have developed, but with getting blog traffic it seems that carpet bombing is still very necessary. That irks me because I know that I have to make a lot of effort for poor returns, especially in the beginning. To deal with this I first have to accept the reality of my situation and then I have to look at dealing with the paradox of wasting my efforts in the most effective way.

I can do this in two ways. One is to make as much use of the 80/20 principle as I can so that I do disproportionately more of whatever efforts return more bang per buck. That can lead to a more precision targeted process. The second way is to increase my productive output per unit of time, i.e. two or three bombing raids per day rather than one. This sheer force of numbers and effort will likely turn the balance of probabilities more in my favor so I can return the result that I want but again, no guarantee will ever exist.

Creating a Motive

The targeted application of resources and the increased rate of the application of resources are in reality the best approaches that I can ever expect to have of delivering results over which I have little or no control (especially when starting out). That still leaves something of an emotional deficit in comparison to the lift that the fantasy of a belief can give (This works because imagining great results in advance generates positive emotions. You get an emotional kick but it doesn’t deliver those results in reality).

It’s beneficial to feel positive emotions but if they are unfounded then disappointment is inevitable (another reason why I dislike beliefs and quite possibly the cause of a lot of depression in this world). Since I won’t entertain bolstering myself with fantasies I rely upon two other emotional states: fascination and courage.

I consider the perfect moment as any moment passed in productive (or helpful) effort with a cheerful attitude. If you can get that trick sorted then life is a breeze and a continuous source of fun and fulfillment regardless of the results that come your way. By getting fascinated and curious with the process steps themselves (instead of a fixation on desired results) and by taking delight in the small discoveries and advancements that can come every day from the application of effort we greatly enhance our abilities to live each moment well.

When that doesn’t happen, perhaps because of necessary obligations that at times feel onerous and hard pressed, then I turn to using courage. Courage is an acceptance of uncertainty and an acceptance of the fact that the only way to deal with uncertainty is to continue to carry out whatever courses of action that will most likely deliver the desired result. It is tempered by sensible caution to prevent the recklessness that can come if momentary desperation sweeps over us.

Courage doesn’t have to be used as a last resort in the face of very difficult circumstances. It can occur regularly as simple acceptance of the unknown and the willingness to face what comes. It can also be applied cheerfully and it can reinforce intent so that actions are carried out vigorously.

A substitute for beliefs

We can disregard fickle, unreliable, superstitious and limiting beliefs by instead testing theories with with a mix of both targeted and wide-sweeping tactics carried out vigorously, with fascination in the process itself rather than the result, and with the courage to accept uncertainty. Such an approach gets us to focus on the moment and in what useful things we can do in the moment. There’s no better way to live life than to live every moment well.

Turn Beliefs Into Theories

If you want more insights into better living then subscribe to my blog (use the orange button in the header bar above)