For example, a life insurance sales rep’s belief system says:

“My worth as a human being depends on selling $6 million of life insurance this year. If I don’t sell that much, I can’t feel happy and worthwhile.”

To help appraise this erroneous belief system, the sales rep could consider appraising the advantages and disadvantages of his beliefs as in the example illustrated below:

Advantages:

“This belief system keeps me motivated, it helps me make more calls, it helps me reach my goals, it helps me make money and it gives me my a purpose in life.”

Disadvantages:

“When I don’t reach my goals, I get angry, upset or depressed. This belief system also brings a great deal of doubt and worry about my capabilities. This belief system makes me ignore my needs for feeling good. This belief system makes me angry and upset each time I lose a sale; this makes me work too hard. This takes some of the fun out of my job and my personal life. This belief system creates the illusion that work is life’s only satisfaction. There are many other activities that I enjoy.”

Conclusion:

“I don’t have to connect my self-esteem to my performance. I can do a super job in selling life insurance and enjoy high self-esteem. My new belief system is: “My worth as a human being does not depend on the sales I make, the dollars I earn or the recognition I get. My worth as a human being can’t be earned or be given to me by others. My worth as a human being depends only on how warm and loving I am towards myself. I’ll connect my self-esteem only to my need for feeling good. I’ll give it to myself unconditionally. Thus, I’ll reach my sales goal with less emotional strain and more self-satisfaction. Feeling good all the way!”