Did you know that the subconscious area of our brain holds our memories, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and allows us to store and retrieve information? Like the “operating system” of a computer, it’s always running in the background. And what is programmed, or stored into it, whether positive or negative, will determine a predictable response, or outcome. Our automatic reaction is a reflection of our core beliefs – our identity and what we believe about ourselves. It’s why false core beliefs can determine our level of success.

When I was twenty-one years old, I was attending a local junior college in Liberal, Kansas to pursue a teaching degree.  Two years later, just as my new husband, Cory, was being transferred with his job, I completed my Associates Degree in Elementary Education.

Now settled in Wichita, I waited for classes to begin that fall, but deep down I began to wrestle with severe fear. Why? Because I was terrified of the student-teaching segment of my degree plan. Having an experienced teacher assigned to me for the purpose of watching and critiquing my skills, and my overall performance with children in an actual classroom resurrected a false core belief. And it paralyzed me.

When we encounter a new experience, we may become nervous. Our brain hasn’t created neuropathways for this new experience, thus it hasn’t been programed to know how to respond, so we usually experience fear or anxiety. But our fear can manifest into unhealthy behavior when negative or false core beliefs attach themselves to our fears.

Verbal abuse by parents in which put-downs, constant criticism, and brow-beating often creates false core beliefs. Our subconscious mind translates these into negative name tags such as not good enough, or will never amount to much, unqualified, or not smart enough. When triggered, they affect our identity and our self-confidence. Verbal abuse was my mother’s tool to convey her disapproval of me. Once I left home my self-confidence was in shreds and I had a poorly defined identity. Because I could never measure up in my mother’s eyes, I developed the fear of failure. I became hyper-sensitive, and constructive criticism didn’t mean growth, it meant rejection. If I failed at student-teaching, it proved my mother was correct; I wasn’t good enough. So, I did what most people do with a fear of failure; I avoided the risk altogether by bailing from the teaching program. I subconsciously transferred my false core beliefs about myself and assigned them to the person who’d be evaluating me in the classroom. For many years negative name tags and false core beliefs shaped my identity and impacted my potential. It robbed me of my dream of being a teacher.

Because of people in our lives who failed to give us those affirming, faith-filled words that edify and nourish our souls and point to our potential, lies were programmed into our subconscious as truth. Negative name tags distort our identity. Unfortunately, if not addressed, false core beliefs can negatively impact our level of success, or stop it completely.

Part of growing up is ripping off the negative name tags others gave us and renew our minds with words that empower and strengthen us from within. This habit deletes the junk and reprograms our minds with truth, enabling us to think differently and react appropriately to a new experience. I chose to see myself from God’s perspective according to His Word. Words such as “qualified, approved, valued, and skilled, became my new truth. New experiences may still provoke fear, but we keep moving through fear because we have corrected our distorted thinking. If you struggle with self-confidence or a fear of failure and need help identifying false core beliefs, seek a qualified counselor, as a first step. It’s important to understand the roots of negative patterns of our subconscious to achieve success.