EAE News
Jordi Vilá and beliefs: Limiting or Empowering?
17 de December de 2019
17 de December de 2019
What are beliefs? Do they limit or empower people? Explore this issue with the lecturer Jordi Vilá and gain insight from his latest online conference.
Behind every action, there is a conviction. Behind every reaction, a belief. Human beings do not simply float adrift on the current of day-to-day circumstances, nor do they wander through life indifferent to the situations that arise. Just the contrary, human beings are governed by a set of ideas and beliefs that, as well as shaping their past, define their future. Jordi Vilá, the Director of EAE’s Master in Coaching, understands this reality as well as anybody, and he shared his in-depth insight in the latest online conference, entitled “Beliefs that drive us; Beliefs that limit us”, on 5th December from 18:00 to 19:00.
The conference was a new Alumni initiative that primarily aimed to foster “links beyond the classroom” among students of EAE Business School. The students took part in an interesting discussion about beliefs, led by Jordi Vila. With the help of videos and other guidelines set by the lecturer, the participants discussed various aspects of this topic, including the definition and origin of beliefs, and their usefulness in life. However, the issue on which most of the conference focused was the effect that beliefs have on human beings.
To examine the effect of beliefs on our lives, Vilá distinguished between limiting and empowering beliefs. The former are beliefs “restrict you” and become a kind of burden that is hard to rid yourself of, many of which date back to our early childhood. These beliefs limit people’s development and hinder their evolution in every part of their everyday lives. These kind of beliefs are exemplified in this video, shown at the start of the conference.
In contrast, empowering beliefs, as the name suggests do just the opposite of limiting beliefs. Rather than restricting or paralysing, these beliefs enhance and strengthen people’s confidence, enabling them to develop more freely and effectively in areas such as work and relationships. As the lecturer explained, these beliefs “facilitate life” and stimulate growth.
Shown in the second half of the conference, this video portrays the life of a man who, now elderly, reflects on the importance of this kind of beliefs.
Once he had drawn the distinction between the types of beliefs and the effect that they have on the minds of human beings, Jordi Vilá asked one of the most eagerly awaited questions of the conference and perhaps one of the hardest to answer: how can we influence or change these beliefs? On this issue, he emphasized that the main factor is “being aware of them” so that we can then question and test them. As a result, they no longer remain hidden and can be tackled.
As we saw in the conference, whether they are limiting or empowering, beliefs determine our existence. However, as the lecturer Jordi Vilá concluded, every person has the power to transform them.