(For example, one is cautioned to prefer installing beliefs of capability rather than ability, e.g. “I can learn to do this better”, not “I am the best there is”.)
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”. As far as I can tell, this has the advantage of overriding habits of thinking “I’m just a student, I’m not very good at this”. It might also override habits of thinking “I have to show how good I am”.
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”
Note that “I am a master” is not falsifiable, unless you also have some idea of what being a master consists of. This isn’t a problem if you believe (for example) that a master is someone who is always learning and improving, and who makes mistakes.
Of course, at that point, you are right back to having a capability belief. ;-)
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”. As far as I can tell, this has the advantage of overriding habits of thinking “I’m just a student, I’m not very good at this”. It might also override habits of thinking “I have to show how good I am”.
Note that “I am a master” is not falsifiable, unless you also have some idea of what being a master consists of. This isn’t a problem if you believe (for example) that a master is someone who is always learning and improving, and who makes mistakes.
Of course, at that point, you are right back to having a capability belief. ;-)