Our core beliefs are at the root of everything we do. They influence how we think about and behave towards ourselves, others and the world around us.
The brain develops these beliefs to help and protect us. Formed through our life experiences, especially from childhood and adolescence, they are like an operating manual. They are often extremely rigid and resistant to change. Sometimes they are quite simply inappropriate and the resulting behaviour works against us.
We tend to operate and make our important life decisions under the influence of our core beliefs. Many of our values – which we will be considering in the next section – are usually driven by our core beliefs. In all likelihood you may have no idea what those beliefs are because they will be safely buried in your subconscious. So before we can understand what is driving us it’s vital to discover what our beliefs are and whether any of them are out of date or misinformed.
To do this we will use a technique called ‘laddering’. Laddering is used a great deal in psychotherapy because there is no contamination from the psychologist. Laddering is also employed in market research because it is to manufacturers’ and retailers’ advantage to know why we make certain buying decisions.1
In laddering you just keep probing, asking yourself ‘Why?’ or ‘What does that do for me?’ until you can go no further. It is rather like the way two year olds interrogate us with their ubiquitous and repetitive ‘Why?’They ladder up on each answer you give until, with exasperation, you cannot go any further and blurt out something like ‘Because that is just the way that it is!’
Here is an example of ‘laddering’ working on a statement 
and Q&A 
technique:
| I like low-fat milk. |
| Why? |
 | Well I prefer that taste. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| It’s not so creamy. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| Because it has no fat in it. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| Because fat is bad for you. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| Because I want to be healthy. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| It just is. |
Here you can see the ‘laddering up’ until the steps just run out and there is nowhere else to go. It’s here that the core belief is revealed: it is important to be healthy.
So low-fat milk is promoted not because of taste, or cost or because it will make a better cup of tea, but because it is healthy.
Here’s another example:
| What do you do? |
| I am a nurse. |
| Why did you choose that profession? |
| I like people. |
| What does that do for you? |
| I get a buzz out of helping people. |
| Why is that important to you? |
| Because it is the right thing to do. |
| Why is it right? |
| It just is. |
Core belief: it is important to help others.
So employment advertising for nurse applicants places an emphasis on how caring for others enables personal satisfaction.
What are your core beliefs?
Here are some questions you could ask yourself to discover your core beliefs:
- What do you enjoy doing in your leisure time?
- What do you like about your partner?
- Why do you vote the way you do?
- What was the biggest risk that you have ever taken?
- What are you most proud of in your life and work?
- What is you favourite film/book?
- Tell me about an important argument in the past that you just had to have.
- What has been your most significant emotional experience?
- What sort of presents would you prefer to buy for people?
- What has been the hardest decision that you ever had to make?
- Should you die tomorrow what three things would you like to be remembered for?
Laddering is an important way of understanding yourself and others because it gives you deep insight into your core values and what makes you (and those around you) ‘tick’.
Core beliefs
Here are a few example core beliefs – you will discover more as you embark on the activity. Mostly they can be prefaced with ‘always’:
Core beliefs usually come prefaced by ‘I must/ought/should’ and have a suffix along the lines of ‘because it is right/ it helps me/ my parents taught me/ it makes sense/ that is what I believe/ it is in the Holy Book of my faith’.
Core beliefs can also be negative and damaging. These are again prefaced by ‘I am’ and sometimes can have the suffix ‘because’.
Here are some of the negative ‘I am’ beliefs:
As small children, if we suffer inadequate parenting, abuse or shame and we attempt to make sense of what is happening to us using ‘because’ – ‘I am not like others’, ‘life is hard’, ‘I cannot please my parents’ – then we, unfortunately, later use such statements to help us make sense of the world around us.
Facing the same environment each and every day, these beliefs become embedded deep in our psyche and can later have a detrimental effect on our self-esteem and our subsequent behaviour. Because at a deep level a person thinks – knows – that they are powerless, they don’t even try to stand up for their rights. These core beliefs are the subconscious dams that hold us back on fulfilling our potential. Such statements rattle round in our heads whenever we are motivated to develop ourselves.
Such beliefs are independent of your analytical mind, so it is difficult to resolve them with reason alone or employ your analytical skills. We will examine how to deal with these inappropriate beliefs later, but the good news is that once you recognise that you have been the victim of such negative beliefs, and you recognise that they are part of your early life, you can choose whether or not to keep, dispose of or respond to them, and act accordingly
Usually we have about six or seven core beliefs. Sometimes they conflict with each other, so for example, while we might agree that it is important to be thrifty, healthy and independent, we also go on shopping sprees, indulge in fast food and usually agree with what our peer group values.
 | ‘To know and not to do is not to know.’ Zen saying |
Make a list of all the things you have done in the past six months that support your core belief. If this is difficult then think of 10 actions you have undertaken when you were challenged or had to make an ethical or difficult decision.
Having done this it is then back to the drawing board to reflect on what this might tell you about your important beliefs. It is easy to fool yourself and think you are better than you actually are.
Share your core beliefs with a friend who will be honest and give you reliable feedback. (It could be very helpful for you to tell the friend that you will still value their friendship after you have had the discussion!)
- To really understand ourselves we need to discover our core beliefs.
- Core beliefs are very important because they determine our important decisions right down to the trivia of what we buy at the supermarket.
- ‘Laddering’ is an easy way of discovering our core beliefs.
- Some core beliefs can be damaging and it’s important to recognise them so that we can discard them if they are unhealthy.
1 As a result of laddering techniques used in market research, cigarette packets became white; Shell changed its logo to green; and even chickens were allowed out for an hour a day to be ‘free range’. Fast-food outlets are still doing their best to appear organic and healthy.