A Personal Psychology of Your Design

You have a personal psychology. You might call it your belief system, your values, or your personal blueprint. But whatever you call it, it isn’t really of your own making. You’ve caught it, just like you might catch a virus.

You picked up a good deal of your personal psychology from your parents; it’s very likely you believe a lot of what they believed (same religion, same politics, and a host of other things). They picked up a good part of their psychology from their parents.

Some of your personal psychology you picked up in school. You were taught some things that caused your personal psychology to form, and much of what you were taught came from your friends, especially during your teenage years.

Then there is society and the culture at large. The constant and never-ending stream of ideas blasted into your mind by the news, entertainment, and other media shapes much of your personal psychology–especially the negative components.

You filter all of the events of your life through these ideas to decide what things mean, what is good and right, what is bad and wrong, and how you are supposed to navigate it all.

So there you are, with this big hodge-podge of other people’s ideas, beliefs, and values making up your personal psychology. If you are like most people, you didn’t choose your personal psychology, it happened to you.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can choose a better, more effective, more empowering personal psychology. You can design your own, choosing what serves you best and discarding what doesn’t serve you anymore.

Here is an example. I know a great number of people whose personal psychology tells them that the world is full of scarcity, that there isn’t enough to go around, that money is hard to come by, that other people with some resources prevent them from having more, and that there is simply nothing they can do about it. It is an unhealthy belief underlying the psychology of the victim.

I know other people who believe the universe is abundance, that in an 80 trillion dollar economy there is plenty to go around, that money isn’t hard to come by but requires a good deal of effort, that it doesn’t matter how much anyone else has, and they can have as much as they are willing to earn through their personal efforts. This is a healthier personal psychology. Let’s call it one pillar of the hustler’s mindset.

In the case of both groups of people, their personal psychology becomes their reality. They manifest their beliefs.

What would a personal psychology by design look like?

If there is some area of your life that isn’t what you want it to be, your underlying beliefs (your personal psychology) is what you must change to improve it.

What would you believe about success? What would you believe about happiness? Whose psychology would you choose to be infected with?

What would you believe about your health? Whose belief and value system would you choose to adopt as your own and what difference would that mean to the way you behave and the results you produced?

What would you believe about other people? Would you choose to believe that people are generally good or that they have bad intentions? Is there someone whose personal psychology you could use to design your own?

What personal psychology would you design around success, happiness, finances, spirituality, health and wellness, personal growth, and your contribution?

You always had the ability to choose your own personal psychology. What psychology will you choose now?