How to identify your BS

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week I'll publish a solo cast where I'll share my top high performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.

Well, I'm gonna say it. You're BS is holding you back or your BS is totally empowering you to be your best self. That's right. Your belief systems, they sit underneath your conscious self and they are really driving every decision that you make. So we're going to talk about belief systems, what yours are, how to actually uncover your beliefs and decide are they empowering me or are they doing the opposite? Are they disempowering me? So by the end or of this episode, you're going to know what your global beliefs are and whether they're great for you, whether they're not, how to reshape them. But before we do that, I've got one thing I want to share. Recently I decided to go ad free. That's right. No promotions, no ads on the show. Just to enhance your listening experience. So the team went from being just me when I first started the podcast. Now we've got a team of four working on the podcast round the clock, working week on week to bring you three episodes every week. I'm so proud of the incredible world class guests that we bring in. So for me to continue to do that, I need to ask you for a favor. Can you please go and share this episode or share the podcast with three people? And if you did it last week, thank you so much. Share it with another three people this week. That allows me to continue to get to more people and more people will help me to chart more in the charts. And when I'm charting, it allows me to attract those incredible people, incredible guests. So if you could do that, it would mean the world and if it would just take a moment of your time, sincerely appreciate it. And also, if you haven't already, please ensure that you're subscribed to the show on Apple or Spotify and leave me a rating and review those things go a long way to helping me keep building the team that wraps around this podcast. So thank you so much. Let's get back to that bs. That's right, you've got that BS running through your mind. Belief systems are at the core of who we are. And when we think of a belief, what is that? Well, it's really, really simple. A belief is something that if you repeat it over and over and over enough, you will believe what you are saying to yourself. And when you think of people being indoctrinated, they're hearing the same thing said to them over and over and over, usually with passion and deep seated belief around what the person's saying, then they will start to embody and embrace those words and they will become beliefs. If we go back and we look at it very simply for people, many people that grew up in, say, a Christian world, Christmas is a thing. And the big guy in the red suit was Santa Claus. And for a lot of young people under the age of say 9, 10, they believe.

I certainly did believed that Santa Claus was real. That was a belief. Why? Because I'd said it a hundred times, Santa is real. Santa brings presents. Then mom and dad would say it. My aunties, my uncles, my grandparents, my friends, the tv, the movies, everything around us. It would reinforce that belief. So for you, you're going to have beliefs that were just given to you by society and you accepted them. Because, hey, with Santa, that's what we did until we got to a certain stage where we're like, actually Santa is mum or dad or whoever it might be. But we, when we repeat anything, we begin to believe it. And if you think about that for yourself, hey, I'm too old, I'm too old, I'm too slow, I'm too broke, I'm too tired, I'm too busy. When you say those things over and over and over and over, you start to believe that you're too busy. You start to believe that you're too old. And that belief then shapes your perception of the world around you and it affects your actions, your behaviors that come after that. So your beliefs are so incredibly powerful. So just before we move into it, just know that a belief is anything that you say and you repeat over and over and over again. So just be really careful around what you say. Be really careful around what you repeat. Be really careful what you listen to. Depending on who you listen to, if you're listening to that person or that show or you're reading their material, if you listen to it over and over and over again, you start to believe what they're telling you. So be very careful. Particularly in this day and age of social media, of AI, of fake news, the more you read into these things, the more you start to believe it. So, please, I challenge you to be the gatekeeper that really guards your mind and really thinks about what's allowed in and what's not allowed in and really challenge your beliefs. So let's look at global beliefs. So global beliefs are things that we think about around money, relationships, success.

Failure, all those things, right? There's many, many more leadership. We have global beliefs. So let's look at money. It's the one that most people are, I would say, uncomfortable to talk about in front of others. So it's just you and me right now. What do you currently believe about money? Just for a moment, ask yourself, what do I believe about money?

And your answer to that might be, money is. And then whatever flows after that.

Take a moment, what is it? Some people will say, money is scarce. Money is abundant, Money is mine for the taking. Money is the root of all evil. Money is the platform to do good.

I'm just throwing these things out there. I've heard everything you could imagine. When I do this in a workshop setting, I've got a couple of hundred people and I share the mic around. It's quite incredible, the varying beliefs around money. Money is energy.

Money is physical, money is tangible. Look, I'll share with you someone in my life, actually more than one person, several people in my life, shared with me this as a youngster. James, money doesn't grow on trees. Now, come on, I know you've heard that before, right? You may have even heard that in your own life. And I thought, you're right, of course it doesn't grow on trees. It looked outside, there's no money hanging off those trees. Wouldn't it be lovely? But what I didn't think about was, hey, well, if I could think outside the box, it, it might have shaped things differently. So for many years, that belief of money doesn't grow on trees made me really safeguard money, hoard it, be protective of it, not take risks. And there were many opportunities missed. There was also bad decisions made with Money. So I started to read different things and go to different events around people who were very financially wealthy. And certainly I didn't grow up around lots of financial wealth. So that was a different experience and it really challenged my thinking. And I never wanted to lose sense of who I was or where I came from or what my values are. But certainly I wanted to be able to contribute more, grow more, have more security and certainty. And so changing my ideas around money was so, so important. So I decided my current belief around money was it doesn't grow on trees. But what does it need to be for me to thrive? What could it be in the ideal world.

For me to really shift that thinking? And I thought, well, if I shifted it to the opposite, money grows on trees. And I started to repeat that. I started to believe that, started to embody that. I think that could make a difference. And so I started to repeat that, started to believe that. And here's how I framed it. I believed that my mind was a tree. And there is money that would come from that mind as long as I watered it and fed it. And I would do that through listening to great inspirational leaders. And I would do that through going to events. I would do that through research, learning, education. And so the money on that tree will just keep producing the more I water it. And so for my little boy, FINN, he's almost 7, and I say to him, look, Finn, money grows on trees. Money is everywhere. Money is abundant. Money can do so much good for others. And for you to have more of it, you've got to water the money tree. And that money tree is your mind. I want you to be the most curious person in any group that you sit in, whether it's at school or wherever. I want you to ask why and why and why? Keep asking why. I never ever say to him, I want you to be the top of the class, or I expect A's, or in New Zealand they call it ease for excellence. But I just want him to be curious and keep watering that tree of his mind, reading books he loves to read, listening to great people, being around interesting people. And I think that's a big shift. So what's your belief around money? And what could it be that could empower you? Hey, you might already have an amazing belief system wrapped around money that's really serving you well. And if you do, I salute you. What I'm going to ask you to do is just pick one belief that you know is not serving. You could be around relationships. Some people believe relationships are difficult. Relationships Are not forever. Relationships are hard work. Relationships are toxic. Like these words. I hear them at workshops. I hear them with one to one clients. So what do you believe about relationships? Is there a relationship in your life that you would like to be a little bit better? It could be with one of your parents, if you're lucky enough to still have your parents, could be with a sibling, could be your intimate partner, could be with your kids, could be with a colleague or friend. Pick one relationship that you're just not really fulfilled and satisfied with and start to go, okay, what do I believe about that relationship? Do I believe it's one sided? Do I believe that they're not invested? And hey, what could I shift that belief to be in the ideal world to make it more empowering? What could that belief be? And then I want you to write that down and repeat it to yourself and write it out daily and explore it, read about it, go, you know, listen to podcasts around relationships, read books around relationships. So this is all about understanding the belief systems that really run our lives. When we respond to someone with impatience or anger, there's a belief system running underneath us that's been triggered. But the great thing is we can rewire our belief system simply by becoming aware of what our current belief is, deciding that we want it to be more empowering, writing that out and then repeating it with passion and conviction. And I would encourage you to do it verbally. Say it every day and write it out every day. Not type, not pop it in your phone, but actually write it out. I've said this for years, that when we write things out, we're literally inscribing them into our subconscious mind. And Andrew Huberman recently actually validated that. So Andrew Huberman's an incredible neuroscientist and he shared recently the data around writing versus typing. And those who write, they really embody, embrace, retain, and believe what they're writing so much more than their counterparts who are typing things out. So if you're not a writer, go today, get yourself a little notebook or get your tablet out and write on that tablet with a pencil or pen. It's honestly a big difference maker. So I want you to think about your bs. Your belief systems are really directing your life in one way or the other, but you've got to become aware of them. Ask yourself, is this empowering or disempowering? What could it be if it needs to be more empowering? And then repeat it and start to reshape those beliefs. So I hope there's been value for you today and I'm super excited for our next special guest. But between now and then, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders, it's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.