The Belief Window

The second piece of the model is the Belief Window. Inside that window is the word Principles.

You have a Belief Window. It sits in front of your face. Imagine that a wire comes from the back of your head across the top and hooks onto that window. Every time you move your head, the window moves with you. You look out into the world through this window; you accept information from the world through this window. On this window you have placed thousands of principles that you have accepted as correct.

The minute I say the word principles, a lot of people start thinking about heavy-duty religious stuff. It’s true that religious and ethical principles may be on your Belief Window, but there are thousands of tiny little principles as well. We put principles on our Belief Window because we believe they’ll help us satisfy the four Human Needs. The number of principles you have on your Belief Window is a function of your age; the older you are, the more principles you will have on it.

An example of a principle you might have on your Belief Window might be something like this: “All Doberman pinschers are vicious.”

Which of the four Human Needs is driving this principle? It clearly has something to do with the need to live. Somewhere in your life, you decided to accept the idea that Doberman pinschers are vicious as a correct principle. You believe it, so you put that principle on your Belief Window.