Most people know that thoughts, actions and beliefs influence our life. They’ve heard that what we think and feel shapes where we choose to live, how much money we make and who we become friends with.
But very people know that there is an order to those factors, a hierarchy of influence so to speak, that explains how powerful different attributes are in our life.
The hierarchy of influence
You can think of the hierarchy of influence as a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid, we have consciousness, a few metres down is our identity and self-image, followed by our intentions, beliefs and skills, our actions, and finally the environment at the base.
In this pyramid, each level influences everything below.
Suppose you think of yourself as a “bad writer” – that’s your identity and self-image. With that self-image, you’re unlikely to learn enough to become a professional writer. In fact, your identity will probably stop you from practising regularly and developing your writing ability.
Instead, you might believe that anyone design ads – that there’s nothing special about it, as it’s just a skill that takes practice and develops over time. With that mindset, you might sign up for a calligraphy class and ultimately become adept in this area of marketing.
Reversing the hierarchy of influence
Of course, the hierarchy also works in reverse. But moving up a level on the hierarchy is much slower than climbing down. This is quite similar to climbing a mountain. It’s much harder to reach the top than it is to slide down, as you have gravity doing part of the work for you.
Or in a marketing context, it is much harder to learn how to edit a video, and then change your beliefs about your skillset, than it is to change your beliefs first and then learn about video editing.
And it takes continuous practice (=a lot of action) to develop a new skill, but much less time to act on a skill you already have.
One of the reasons people often get stuck is that they forget about steep slopes of this hierarchy. They aren’t aware, for example, of how much harder it is to change your environment if you don’t change your beliefs first.
Imagine a sales person who keeps telling himself that “no one wants to buy anyway”. That belief alone can throw a spanner in the works, and stop him from finding customers through phone calls, emails, or door-to-door sales.
But the moment that mental switch flips, and he starts seeing his product as valuable, he will find it much easier to attract people who share his belief.
So, a simple change in mindset allows you to overcome obstacles and find ways to create the change you want.
Why actions are slower than beliefs
Intention precedes all and any actions we take. This is true for simple things like eating an apple, but also for more extensive, complex marketing projects. If we stick with the simple example for now, you can only bite off a piece of an apple after you have decided to do so.
You need a decision to set the action in motion. This is why we can say all action originates in the mind.
Now, not all intentions lead to immediate action. You’ll know this if you ever procrastinated on some marketing work. Even if you intended to start working right away, another intention ran counter to that. You had a conflict of intention, and only once you settled that conflict, could you get going.
Aside from conflicting intentions, there are other factors that can delay action. A common cause of delay is when your conscious or subconscious beliefs run counter to your actions.
If you believe, for example, that “you’re not creative today”, that can interfere with any creative projects you are working on. Or when you think that it is hard to write a compelling letter, chances are that your belief will slow you down.
As you can see, your intentions need to pass through the filters of your beliefs before they can turn into action. This filtering mechanism can take time, as it is not just beliefs, but also skills, and other intermediate levels of the hierarchy of influence that need to be overcome.
And the thicker those layers are (meaning the fewer skills you have, the more limiting beliefs, etc.) the longer it takes for intention to turn into action.
Let’s explore this idea using our earlier example.
Example: Eating an apple
You have an apple on the table in front you. Whether you choose to eat that apple or not, will depend primarily on your identity. If for whatever reason, your identity is that you “don’t eat apples”, you wouldn’t even think about touching it.
But suppose you have no such issue with apples. Now the question is whether you plan to eat it or not. You may, for example, decide that you are hungry and that want to enjoy it, or that you’ll leave it for later, because you’re full after a large meal.
With your intention to eat the apple in place, your beliefs come to play. If you think the apple Is rotten and will make you sick, that belief can stop you from eating the apple. The same is true if you believe that you are allergic to apples.
But suppose you don’t have any such limiting beliefs. Now the only question remains whether you have the skillset to eat the apple. Can you physically move it from the table to your mouth?
If you can, then you will start eating the apple. And by the time you have finished eating, there won’t be an apple on the table, meaning that you have changed your environment.
The myth that our environment influences us
Most people believe that our environment influences us. After all, it’s much easier to blame ‘external factors’ for our own shortcomings and problems – than it is to assume complete responsibility for the way our life unfolds.
What they forget – and what this hierarchy shows – is that external factors influence us only to the degree that we choose. Let me show you what I mean using another example:
Suppose a marketing campaign isn’t running as well as you had hoped. You’re seeing a negative return, so you decide to pause the campaign. Now, if the campaign had been doing extraordinarily well, you would have kept in running.
Most people look at this example, and say that the environment (i.e. campaign performance) led to different actions (continuing vs. stopping the campaign). While that is true, they forget that this action needs to come from an intention.
In this case, the intention would have been to only run the campaign when it is profitable to do so. The intention is to observe the environment and decide on an action, based on the observations made.
However, you could have just as well had a different intention, say to keep the campaign going for at least 6 months, regardless of performance. In that case, environmental factors would have no bearing on your action.
This shows that when we respond or react to our environment, it is because we believe that it is best act based on external factors.
And of course – whenever we want to affect change in our environment, it makes sense to watch our environment. Only that will provide us with feedback as to whether our actions created the intended change. But ultimately, it is our decision to vary our behaviour based on external factors.
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