RECONSTRUCTING YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM STEP BY STEP
FINISHING 'THE JOB', FOR HAPPINESS

CONTENTS

Create a solid foundation
The milestones
Suggested prior learning
Initial tests plus measuring progress
Making the commitment
Practicing basic thought management.
Restructuring the beliefs
Part I.    Re-Form the beliefs
Part II.   Completely install the new beliefs
Part III.  Implement new actions
Measure the final result
Appendix.  Necessary beliefs to master as a foundation
_______________________________________________________________


CREATE A SOLID FOUNDATION!

This program is designed for those who want to have a solid foundation of beliefs to eliminate anxiety, stress, and self-criticism and to have happiness and who are willing to do the necessary work.   The work will start to have clear benefits after only a short while and will produce more benefits before finishing the project than the cost of time for the total project.

Most people have done a portion of this on a dilettantish basis, using it at a very surface level and not even implementing even 50% of what is needed.

This program is what is needed to actually create new beliefs that will accomplish your having a whole new life that is a happy and effective one.  Without the completion, you'll keep more of what doesn't work. 

Please make the commitment!

Your result is that you will have such a true foundation that you do not slip back to lower levels, as opposed to what happens in the superficial and/or less complete types of approaches.  It's permanent!  And it's yours to keep for life!


THE MILESTONES

Along the way to the final result, there are milestones that indicate you have progressed to a new level that is sufficient for now.  Some may be revisited later, when appropriate, to crank up to the next level.

Some milestones can be worked toward simultaneous with others, if you wish, as parallel tracks to work on alternately, but all with sufficient time and regularilty devoted to them.   Milestone 2 (knowing where you are starting) can be done before Milestone 1 (adequate working knowledge of beliefs).  Milestone 3 (commitment, for a reason) can be done anytime.

Thought control can be practiced while gathering one's actual beliefs.  Conversion of beliefs to healthier ones can be done simultaneously (or any time) to the gathering of the beliefs themselves, though you should follow the schedule suggested for finishing them in a set period.

Gathering of affirmations and beliefs from other sources, by category of type, can be done while formulating affirmations and while studying the basic life affirmation, though it should be done earlier in general, as they are necessary for formulating your final (for awhile) basic set of beliefs that you will install. 

Hopefully, you get the idea - regardless of how many you are working on, each must get adequate time and continuity so that each is progressing solidly.


SUGGESTED PRIOR LEARNING:

___ Know How The Mind Works  
___ It is helpful to know what our needs actually are
___ The basics about beliefs

___  Milestone 1.  Attainment of working knowledge of beliefs, so one can work with them productively and appropriately with little wasted effort and more prolonged effect.


INITIAL TESTS PLUS MEASURING PROGRESS

To measure our progress and/or to just have a starting point,

___ Take the Barksdale Self Esteem Evaluation
___ Also I suggest you take the Barksdale Personal Stress Evaluation

___ Milestone 2.  Knowing where one is on the scales, so one has a base from which to develop further, especially having deeper insight into the details of what is causing the undesired effects in one's life. (Send the completed evaluations to your coach/counselor.)


MAKING THE COMMITMENT

Commit to what is necessary to create a new belief system that will produce happiness!

___ Complete the form at the bottom of the Changing Beliefs page. 
      Acknowledge that beliefs can be changed for a good effect. 

___ Complete My Commitment To Correcting My Beliefs


___ Milestone 3. Having committed to successful completion, recognizing the desired effect that this will have on one's life.  (Copy to one's coach/counselor so that he/she can know you are committed, in a more detailed way than some general statement.


PRACTICING BASIC THOUGHT MANAGEMENT

___ Practice Thought Control/Management, stopping thoughts and inserting a
      distraction or new thought, as in Dealing With Negative Thinking In The
      Moment.

___ Milestone 4. Attaining the level of thought control where one believes one is controlling one's thoughts well 80% of the time.  (Work on this might continue through a number of milestones listed for later.)


RESTRUCTURING THE BELIEFS
 
PART I.  RE-FORM BELIEFS

Set up a structure

___ Set up a notebook (or some organization system) to keep and work with the
      beliefs. 

___ Milestone A.  Having set up a structure in which to hold one's work as it progresses.

Identify and record existing beliefs

___ For two weeks, start writing out your "thoughts" that evoke negative emotions
      or events, carrying a spiral bound notebook (recommended, though any storage
      device is good), constantly noting them every day for the two weeks.  Or utilize
      other forms of identifying beliefs such as Sentence Completion Exercise - Beliefs and/or
        List Of Beliefs Sentences.
 
      Use a form if you want to, where you can simply just write down the beliefs as
      they pop up in your thoughts, and then later re-form them or use another
      worksheet:  Converting From The Lower To The Higher Conversation
      Column Worksheet (examples of filled in forms are on the page Reforming The
      Thought Sentences).  Any significant beliefs should be processed further using
      the Thought Change Long Form.

___ Milestone 5.  Having gathered the predominant majority of one's beliefs/thoughts, ready for being organized and addressed and replace.
 
Begin the foundational life learning, while doing the above:

___ Start learning and check off your acceptance and understanding of each of the
      Realities Of Human Behavior, from Lilburn S. Barksdale, "Building Self
      Esteem" book.  See the Learning Program For Barksdale Wisdom.
___ Start learning and reviewing the "basic affirmations" and basic beliefs about life
           (See Appendix for checklist of what to "complete" on).
___ Understand what "awareness" is and what it means

___ Milestone 6. Beginning learning, but full familiarity with, the basic life beliefs that form the foundation of a healthy thought system and of other beliefs.  (Installed fully in a later step.)  Criteria for having reached this is one/s assessment that one is fully familiar with each of them and having accepted most, even though may have to work on some later.

Process existing beliefs into new beliefs!!!!!

___ Compile and prioritize them (Sources:  Any issue you have can be put in the search engine and you can use any affirmations

     List your major beliefs and prioritize them (see Beliefs List Prioritized form)
          Use this as your master working and accumulation worksheet.
     List your core beliefs (See The Core Belief Statements page.)

___ Milestone 7A.  Compiled, listed, and prioritized.

___ Replace each major dysfunctional belief with a new one(s) that is true and believable.  Create stands, statements, declaration that will help extinguish and/or clarify.  (Any issue you have can be put in the search engine and you can use any affirmations in those sections.  The thoughts you used to address the erroneous thinking in the two week gathering of thoughts are good sources of new affirmations.)

   The most detailed worksheet is the Thought Change Long Form, which you
   should primarily use.  However, others are listed and available on the
   Changing Beliefs page.  (Remember that each old belief had a construction
   process that was complete, so each new one has to have a complete construction
   process.)

___ Select from affirmations already on the site, especially the basic underlying
     beliefs that support the entire foundation of new beliefs (Self Esteem
     Affirmations Page) and those related to issues you have (Any issue you have
     can be put in the search engine and you can use any affirmations listed on those
     pages.)  Utilize also the comforting and coping statements throughout the site.

___ Milestone 7B. Having addressed each of the major beliefs (at least 20) in-depth, replaced them with true ones and set up the supporting statements.  This is a long process, during which it is permissible to begin installing the new beliefs and affirmations.  Reformulating a major belief probably will take between 1 to 10 hours. The quicker one is where you have found affirmations that you find true, so that alot of the work is already done for you.  This is a "80%" or more exercise, meaning you might not have perfected many of them, but that they are 80% or more effective.


PART II. COMPLETELY INSTALL NEW BELIEFS

Use self talk to implement new beliefs/thoughts, using your Reminders Notebook:   

___ Affirmations derived from new beliefs (Using Affirmations Effectively)
___ Other Self Talk derived from new beliefs
___ Give up and eliminate stories from your repertoire.

___ Milestone 8.  While 7B is of immense impact, this milestone is the "coup de grace", a relative mastery of using only true, progressive self talk and eliminating virtually all stories, forever.


PART III. IMPLEMENT NEW ACTIONS REINFORCING  NEW BELIEFS

___ For each belief I have I have specified a new behavior or action that will reinforce and be consistent with the new belief.

___ Milestone 9.  Just as one did in childhood with each new belief, one will "complete the set", as each mental record that has a true belief in it, will also have related to it (like a set of dishes) an emotion and a pre-setup suggested behavior that is consistent with producing whatever the desired result will be. 

MEASURE THE FINAL RESULT

___ Complete the self esteem evaluation and genuinely score 90 or above. 

___ Milestone 10.  Achieving these levels allow for a much greater peace of mind and much more effective directing of one's energies, with ease and grace.


THE NEXT STEP: TOTAL COMPLETION

      Putting it together into a life philosophy foundation...
      Listing our values 
      Deciding actions and behaviors I am committed to.

___ Milestone 11.  Achieving a completion of your chosen way of being, acting, and believing in your life, so that you have the "whole" integrated completely together, moving toward that which you value the most, providing the most value to your life.


APPENDIX.

Necessary affirmations to learn, master, and install to have a solid foundation in life.  Texts:  "Building Self Esteem" and, optionally, "Stress-Free Living", both by L.S. Barksdale.  Check off which you accept, as you learn them.  See the Barksdale Self Esteem Evaluation and the Barksdale Personal Stress Evaluation for examples of basic beliefs to have.  Access many of the Barksdale Materials And Programs on this site, currently being added as of 4/10. 

____ My thoughts are not real, nor are any "made-ups". Beliefs As Recordings.
____ I am not my actions nor my beliefs nor my body nor my mind.  I am simply
            he/she who acts or believes. (Who I Am)
____ Very little is needed to have a happy life.
____ I am 100% responsible for all in my life.  I have innate authority to do
         anything I see fit.
____ There is no set standard on how well one should do.  (Comparing)
____ There is no basis for good/bad/right/wrong and no justification for blame.
____ Value judging and criticism creates harm and the payoffs are not valid.
____ People can only do the best their current awareness allows them to do. 
____ No one in the entire world is one iota more or less worthy than I am. 
____ What another does or does not do has nothing to do with my self worth.

You are not finished until you "buy into" all of these and/or pass the Barksdale Self Esteem Evaluation at 90 or better and the Barksdale Personal Stress Evaluation with a score of 20 or less.





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