Why your BELIEFS determine your grades...

I often ask students to write down on paper what they feel are the three most important factors that determine success in study. I’ve done this exercise with many students and the answers given are almost always the same. The top three answers I typically see are as follows:

Q. What are the three most important factors that determine how well a person will do in academics?

• The amount of study the person does.

• How good the person’s school is.

• The parents attitude (whether they are supportive or not).

While these factors certainly seem important, I have yet to come by a student who immediately identifies what I consider to be the most important factor in determining success in academic work. The answer to this question, in my opinion is: BELIEFS! The beliefs you hold about yourself, and the way you generally tend to think about study, are fundamentally important in how well you will do in academics. Beliefs about your value as a person, how clever you think you are, or perhaps how hardworking/lazy you think you are, are just a few examples of the kinds of beliefs that we are talking about here. It is your beliefs and thinking above all else that will determine how well you will do!

It is important for us to be clear about what exactly beliefs are. First of all, they are abstract things; we can’t touch them or even see them. They are born and exist entirely in your mind; they are not in the material world as such. How crazy it might sound then, hearing me say that they are the most important factor in determining success. In fact, I would actually go one further than this. In my opinion, your success in study is determined entirely by your beliefs, and nothing else! At this point you might be thinking that I’ve totally lost it! Please, read on…

When I tell this to students in Next Level Learning workshops, I am frequently met with bewildered looks and the occasional rolling of eyes. Some probably consider what they’ve let themselves in for and wonder whether it’s too late to bolt for the door! While ‘The amount of study the person does’ is usually the most common answer I get from students, some of the answers I hear are actually quite amusing. Several students have told me quite adamantly that “having a clean room” determines success in study! Some students are totally convinced about this! When I tell the students that this factor has nothing to do with determining success in study, they usually say something like: “So are you saying its fine to have a filthy room and a huge mess where I study!” I then point out that many of the students I work with have tidy rooms and are doing very well, while others who study in a complete pigsty are also doing brilliantly. So can the cause of success really be how clean a person’s room is?

Even when I get students to accept that factors such as this are not really the cause of success in study, I still have my work cut out convincing them that action (the amount of study hours you put in) is not the underlying cause of success in study. One student put it this way:

“Ok, I get that a lot of those factors aren’t really that important, but isn’t success based on how I behave? I mean, if I don’t study I won’t do well. If I do study I will do well. Isn’t action the most important thing?”

While I see the logic in this statement, I maintain that ‘beliefs’ are the most important factor in determining success – even ahead of action. This is a fundamental principal in the Next Level Learning system. Action is important but it is not the cause of success. Sure, action can be a part of what success looks like, but it is not its primary cause. In order to be successful, sure, this may involve taking certain action steps. But if action is taken out of a sense of fear or dread, long term success will rarely follow. Unless you have sorted out your thinking, the action you take will likely be misguided and ultimately very frustrating.

Please don’t get me wrong on this. Action is great and is likely very necessary for you to do well. But always remember that the actions you take stem from your beliefs.

The actions you take stem from your beliefs!

Let’s break it down a little more shall we. Some people might agree that while thoughts and beliefs are important, surely action is equally as important. I actually disagree with even this. In order to explain, I use an idea I call ‘The 3 levels’ (see image below). Level 3 is the top level. Here, we have all the outcomes we experience in our lives. This might include whether we: are successful or unsuccessful, rich or poor, pass or fail, win or lose, etc. Really, this could be called the level of outcomes and it is here that people generally tend to focus on or maybe fantasize about when thinking about their lives (ever imagine yourself failing/acing an exam?).

Level 2 is the level below this, and could be referred to as the level of action. This is the level on which we (yes you’ve guessed it) take action and behave in certain ways. Here we are concerned with whether we study or watch TV, stay in or go out, eat healthy food or junk food, etc. Importantly, level 2 (our action) is what determines the ‘outcomes’ in level 3. This is why in order to bring about a specific outcome, people almost always focus on what actions or behaviours they are taking in order to influence these outcomes. While this seems sensible, it misses out on the underlying cause of everything: level 1.

Level 1 could be referred to as the level of thought. Here we are concerned with things such as your beliefs, fears, desires, self-talk, self-esteem, decisions, values etc. This level is the foundation and cause of all the levels above it. Think about what would happen to the upper levels of a building if the 1st floor were demolished! That’s how important this level is. Trying to build a skyscraper and not bothering to construct a first floor would be pretty foolish right?

Perhaps the most important feature of level 1 is that it is totally unseen. You can’t pick up a ‘value’ or touch your ‘self-esteem’ now can you? This is probably why it is the level that is rarely given any attention when people try to bring about desired outcomes. It is so much more intuitive and ‘realistic’ to just take action! However, what most people fail to realise is that level 1 is by far and away the most important level.

If you ignore level 1 and jump straight into taking action there is a major problem. Simply put, you will very likely be out of alignment with your thoughts. When this happens, it usually feels difficult or unpleasant, almost like you are fighting against a strong current, going nowhere. Let’s look at an example to help understand this. Let’s say a person feels motivated to lose some weight and go on a diet. To do this, the outcome they desire is to look good and feel better about themselves. Like most people, they assume that the best way to do this is to change their behaviour and take action. They make detailed plans about what they are going to do and not going to do. What this effectively amounts to is making a list of rules that the person must not break. The fact that this is the approach to dieting almost all people take, and that almost all diets fail to bring about positive lasting outcomes, is not a coincidence! Without working on the 1st level (thinking) nothing has really changed. The person will feel deprived with their new diet and motivation will quickly evaporate. Most importantly, the real reason the person overate in the first place (issues with thinking and beliefs) has not been addressed and changed.

In terms of study, the ‘just take more action’ approach is sadly just as common. Almost all students I have worked with have previously used self-made ‘rules’ to follow in order to get more study done. Of course, I ask them whether or not these ‘rules’ are actually working, to which the answer is invariably ‘well actually, no’. In fact, what would happen was the student would make a list of ‘rules’ to follow, only to inevitably break them and feel even worse as a result. With the Next Level Learning approach to study, you will come to see that making rules in this way is not an effective solution. It is, in fact, very counterproductive.

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