About bike … and beliefs

Autor: Agnieszka Zagórska

“Spring blew up right in my face…(…)” – song sounds in my ears as I ride my bike.

Have you also fired up the cycling season yet?

Mine started some time ago extremely…hard. Yes – myself, who for years have parted with my bike only for the winter time – suddenly felt that it was somehow uphill, my legs somehow tired. My first thought was: “Oh yes, Zagórska, you are out of shape!:( In a moment of self-pity – it is because of this extra 3-year weight on the saddle. After a month (!) I finally went to the bike service, where it turned out that the brake had become out of adjustment and was partially blocking the front wheel. Not me, not the child – the mechanism! I needed a month to think of an alternative scenario.

Why this story? Because it’s universal and I’m sure many of you can relate to it. And it has a moral – before you put something (read: blame) on yourself, look around you.

When working in coaching, we often take a 360degree look at a situation together with our clients – sometimes a few good questions are enough to do this, sometimes the use of tools (e.g. de Bono hats).

Sometimes we need to look at the beliefs behind the way we perceive what happens to us in life. Beliefs are sentences that express our opinions about the world, which we believe to be always true and which represent our subjective point of view , e.g. “People cannot be trusted”, ” I am inconsistent” , “I do everything myself best”, “Money will make me really happy”.

Beliefs play a very important role, they define what we consider important, they are a certain point of reference in the world and they give us a sense of security. At the same time, as John Lock once stated: “The strength of our beliefs does not prove them right“. Some of them can support us and others can limit us. As a coach, I first of all try to identify my client’s beliefs and only then, together with them, determine what impact they have on their life. An effective tool that I also recommend for my own practice is the “On Beliefs” tool from rational behaviour therapy. It consists of analysing a belief using the 5 principles of healthy thinking. By answering the 5 questions, we can verify whether a belief is ‘healthy’ or not:

  1. Is my belief based on facts?
  2. Does it help protect health and life?
  3. Does it help achieve goals?
  4. Does it help avoid conflict?
  5. Does it help me feel the way I want to feel?

In a nutshell, 3 x YES means a healthy belief, 3 x NO means an unhealthy (irrational) belief.

Further work with an irrational belief is not necessarily about changing it, often just realising the nature of the belief itself is possible (and sufficient) for that very moment - I experience both during coaching. However, I always observe how much is contributes by just realising that there are beliefs behind our decisions (or lack of them) that are not necessarily consistent with the facts, and on top of that we have influence over them.

Back to my story with the bike: apparently there is sometimes darkest under the lantern – well, this experience is one more to add to my own coaching practice.

Have a safe and excting journey !


# bike # beliefs # awareness # coaching # coachingaga

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I accompany the development and building of a successful life and business.

I invite you to coaching in Wroclaw and online.

Agnieszka Zagórska

Coach