If you traveled on foot and found yourself completely lost in a wood, minus your smartphone or an area without cell service, you’d need some sort of directional. Avid hikers know that moss grows on the north side of trees. If the sun happens to be shining, it too will give you some direction. Establishing North, is key and who knows, could save your life. At the very least, you’ll need to be not lost.

You trust your navigation tools and your inner sense of direction to get you where you need to go. In much the same way, your belief systems are like a compass showing magnetic North. It helps you navigate your waking life. Your very life is affected by what you believe, on a social, spiritual, emotional, and physical level. And like magnetic North, beliefs may shift from time to time causing you to recalibrate. Magnetic North is not the same as True North. True North is stationery, unchanging no matter the pull of our wobbly planet.

Like me, you were born into a set of beliefs that you assume is normal, or True North. For a while, you automatically believe that others live as you do; until something challenges or breaks through that mindset. You rarely question, think about or investigate your beliefs. And why would you? Your family has built life and history around them. Quite often, they’ve been handed down from one generation to the next, cementing them in your mind. What’s more, the people around you seem perfectly content — for the most part — right where we are. (Or so I’d tell myself when my beliefs were shaken.)

What happens when beliefs you’ve carried around your whole life turns out to be untrue? What if magnetic North suddenly moved not just a little, but significantly?

What if you discovered the expensive education you gained was deeply flawed? The people you held in iconic regard have hidden, minimized and adeptly denied lifelong addictions? Or that the foundations of your family are not what you had been led to believe? You may not know that over the years, magnetic North drifts more than a few degrees. It may line up with True North or be pretty far off the mark.

At one of my first jobs, a female co-worker confided that she was being physically and emotionally abused by her husband. We were both in early adulthood. I shared that my dad had never mistreated my mother or laid a hand on her. My friend revealed a lot about her family when her mouth fell open in shock. Clearly this behavior was not “normal” in her family of origin.

What does this mean for you?

What beliefs are going unchallenged right now in your own life? What do you believe about your faith? Your holidays? Your ceremonies? Are they truth or merely traditions? What you and I believe today may not be close to what our parents or grandparents believed when they were our age. We can change our thinking sometimes very easily, but we are marked by those beliefs.

When new information or actual truth intersects with your beliefs, it can cause cognitive dissonance. You may take up smoking then learn how harmful it is. You may reject the information that warns you of the harm it causes. You may keep smoking and suffer the consequences, or choose to quit and embrace a healthy lifestyle.

After working in natural foods store I tried to work in a grocery. I balked at selling cigarettes, hard alcohol, and chemical-laden junk foods knowing the damage they caused in the body. I’m not knocking people who work in grocery, but I couldn’t separate my conscience from my job.

Somewhere along the line, facts can be hidden, truth can be diluted, damaging mindsets can take root, and misperceptions may become your certainty — and lead you far afield.

One friend was raised in a caring family but they did not share her sense of humor. She later discovered that the man she’d called daddy her whole life was not her biological father. When she finally met her bio-dad, they laughed at the same things. Although one question was answered, it raised many more.

Beliefs are not bullet proof. Real truth begins with realizing when a long-held belief is false. But what if you find out after decades, the club you joined has a deeply dark side? Or that the faith you grew up in has been nothing but a series of lies? Maybe your company supports causes you vehemently detest or conflict with your faith? Or a person you trusted and admired reveals a moral failing?

Beliefs aren’t bulletproof

Test them and see. Some may be easily shrugged off, but the more impactful ones will be harder to reconcile. Sometimes your path can be corrected by making subtle changes or investigating facts.

You may find yourself on a world adventure. One friend of mine began traveling central Europe meeting relatives there for the first time. Through their conversation, she discovered their benevolent acts during World War II.

Hard truths may require more radical action –maybe you have to draw a line in the sand. Relationships might be broken. You may need to leave a place where you once felt comfortable, or you may even need to change your places of worship. Some may bury their heads in sand and limit how much information they hear because they want to keep the status quo.

In the misinformation age, it’s more important than ever to investigate sources and especially those who oppose your sources. Why do they disagree? Obviously, for those who seek to operate in truth, such discoveries can leave you shaken. For others the difference between Magnetic North and True North may be a few degrees, for others it will be much greater. Despite the shock and surprise, you may find that a lot of unanswered questions start getting answered. Knowing and operating in truth should be freeing. Ultimately, we’re responsible for our lives and our destinies, not those who misled us.

Where do you stand? Magnetic North or True North? What areas of your life might need more scrutiny? When is the last time you really dug into what’s behind your beliefs?

For more information about magnetic North, click this link: Does Magnetic North  Move?

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