#38) Exploring Belief Systems

Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham.

Today we're going to explore belief systems. What are they? How can we use them? 

In short, a belief system is what we believe. This includes how we think the world works. Our religious beliefs. Our political beliefs. How we think social encounters should be. Our science and math knowledge. What makes for a good story. Who we can trust, and who we can't. How to be healthy. It also includes what we think we don't understand.

It's a complex collection of everything we believe, and it is DIFFERENT for each of us.

Given enough time and exposure, we would expect all of our belief systems to be the same, converging on some ultimate TRUTH. But we each hold unique views of different parts of this truth, and none of us is CORRECT in everything we know. And that's okay, as we'll discuss multiple times in this video series.

These belief systems are automatic. They have to be. We couldn't function without them. They make use of our autopilots. This is because, as we're walking around the world, making decisions every single minute, we don't have time to reason out each and every tiny detail. We just DO things, because we've already worked out our automated belief system ahead of time. If someone says hi to us on the street, we say hi back, since we've programmed ourselves to do so. Or if some people look scary, we might avoid them and not respond. If you'd like to learn more about our autopilots, check out these earlier videos [point up to Video #1 and #2].

Our belief systems can be complex, with many layers -- like an onion. Or perhaps more closely, a computer. Check this out.

The lowest layer of a computer is its CPU -- Central Processing Unit -- a chip that sits on the motherboard. It contains complex circuitry that physically codes a set of core instructions -- 1's and 0's. Since these are soldered on, you can't change anything -- ever. A computer couldn't function without it. And each computer can have different kinds of CPU's: Intel, Celeron, PowerPC, M1, and so on.

The next layer is Firmware. These are non-physical instructions that control core settings and device settings. It helps the computer talk with monitors, modems, keyboard, and so on. How they work depends on the manufacturer: Dell vs. Apple vs. HP, and so on. This firmware can change, as devices change, but it rarely happens, and requires a total reboot of the computer. In fact, my Mac makes a scary BEEP when it gets ready to change.

The next layer is the Operating System -- Windows, or Mac, or Linux. It helps bring everything together -- the display, inputs, outputs, a graphical interface -- so we humans can understand what's going on. It also provides an environment where developers can create apps for almost anything we can imagine. As you may notice, we get OS updates about once a month, and they're not as scary as firmware updates.

And finally the top layer contains the documents that we, ourselves, create, which can change every single time we open them.

We can relate each layer of a computer to our own belief systems. The CPU is our core makeup -- what we cannot change about ourselves. This may be our physical makeup -- our height, physical limitations, strengths, whether or not we need glasses, how to walk and do other basic functions.

Our firmware represents our deepest beliefs. They can change, but it's difficult, like that scary BEEP. Religion and social beliefs usually reside here. When these core beliefs are challenged, people will often resist and get defensive.

Our operating system contains semi-core beliefs -- ones that are somewhat easier to change. Perhaps like going from Methodist to Presbyterian, where the core beliefs remain intact, but the small details are changed. These beliefs can change every now and then.

And finally -- at the very top -- our documents are all the interesting non-core beliefs -- kind of like trivia, or keeping up with current events. We're changing these every day as we interact with the world, and it usually doesn't hurt at all.

Where we store certain beliefs is entirely up to us. A healthy belief system is one that changes every day. This requires acknowledging that something in our belief system is wrong. In fact, every day I try to find at least one "wrong" item that I can fix. This is much like using the Scientific Method [point to video] to constantly refine our belief system.

In other words, even though we know we're wrong somewhere, it's okay to believe what we believe today, with the intention of swapping out bad facts with good facts as we learn more information. If we are entirely open, we can even learn to refine our firmware -- our deepest beliefs without too much pain.

As we continue through this video series, we'll learn more about refining our belief systems, and how to work with others and their belief systems. But for now, I'd like you to realize that these exist, so you can keep an eye out this next week. What do you believe? And when you look at someone, what do you think they believe? How do you program your own system? And is it a healthy system, open to change?

Thank you for watching. If you'd like to see more, click on that Subscribe button. Next week we'll return to the 7 Habits and discuss the power of Attitudes.

And remember, we can "Always Be Better."