The Contagion of Beliefs
Beliefs about what can and can’t be accomplished might be the easiest thing to catch from one another. They can be transferred via voice, text, audio and/or visual, and shape how we see the world. The acceptance of statements to be true or false can happen so subtly that we don’t even know it’s happening. At least until it’s too late… and another person or another company shows us otherwise.
To take a look at one of my favorite examples of how this plays out, let’s take a trip back to the early 1950s. There was a lot going on in the 1950s: a post WWII baby boom in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, widespread adoption of TV is just starting out, and the Diner’s Club card became the first “credit card” accepted at multiple establishments. What wasn’t going on? Well, in the sports world anyway, running a mile in 4 minutes was nothing but a dream. Many professionals came out at the time suggesting there were biological limits to humans being able to run that fast and it simply couldn’t be done.
Right now, inside your company or group of any sort, there are things that look impossible, right? It’s impossible to do something with a certain budget. Or impossible to work on a certain schedule. Or even, solving that “problem” is impossible, or at least hard enough that it’s not worth spending any time on it. What might be some “impossible” things for you to consider?
Looking at what can and cannot be done is a function of what you believe. The beliefs about what it will take and what’s required. And for the most part, we work inside those beliefs. For example, in the early 1950s many competitive runners lived inside the belief that a sub-4 minute mile was impossible. After all, many experts were suggesting as much. And therefore, it influenced runners’ attempts to try and break it (if they attempted at all… why would you try to do something that’s a physical impossibility?)
The status quo — that is the same old results, or best-case incremental improvements on the same results — is perpetuated by beliefs you hold. Many of those beliefs you’ve simply adopted from your past experience, those around you, or the widely held beliefs amongst those you spend the most time with. It takes actively challenging some of those beliefs to create a breakthrough.
And that’s exactly what the now infamous Roger Bannister did. Roger was a British neurologist that was involved with some competitive running. He resolved himself to push through those limiting beliefs and run a sub-four minute mile #NoMatterWhat. He trained minimally and did it in his spare time as he was a practicing junior doctor. And when the record attempt was made, the announcer called out: “the time was three…” and the crowd roared to life. Roger had run a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
Fair enough.
It takes a game changer like Roger to run a 4-minute mile, a visionary like Elon Musk to create reusable rockets, or a dreamer like Steve Jobs to create a personal computer… you might be a person like that, you might know a person like that, you might want to know a person like that. It takes courage to step into the unknown, risk being wrong — something we talk a lot about. What I want you to notice here is how new beliefs become contagious.
Roger Bannister held the title for fastest mile for only 46 days before someone else beat that record. And then another. And another. Today, over 1,600 people have run a sub-4 minute mile with the current record being set by Yomif Kejelcha in Boston at a pace of 3:47:01. We’ve seen the same with others following in Musk’s footsteps creating reusable rockets and of course countless companies now creating personal computers…
As soon as a belief is proven untrue, “runners” from all over the world can see something new as possible and achieve the very thing that was previously perceived as impossible. That’s how contagious ideas are.
Here’s the point: What beliefs do you have about what’s possible for you and your business? And maybe more importantly, who’s around you reinforcing or questioning those beliefs to have you grow?
I haven’t talked about the #NoMatterWhat Community on Facebook for a while, but if you’re not yet a part of it, this is your chance. It’s a group designed to push you, question limiting beliefs and support you as you’re reaching towards bigger goals. We don’t always get to pick out co-workers, or family, or those around us on a regular basis. This is a group you do get to pick, and I guarantee they’ll bring some positive, breakthrough beliefs to the table.
Beliefs might be one of the most highly contagious things out there and they’re shaping how we see the world, whether we like it or not. For most, this happens unconsciously as you just naturally pick up the beliefs of those around you. For you though, now you know. And now you have the power to notice where you might be catching those limiting beliefs and now you’ll have the opportunity to do something about it.