The Nature of Belief

R. Dilts, Changing Belief Systems with NLP:

Let’s say that a child doesn’t do well on an exam. 
The teacher could say, “It is not your fault at all. Either there was noise in the room or something in the environment that interfered with your performance on the exam”. In other words, the problem is in your environment and has nothing to do with you at all. Of course, this has the least impact on the student.
The teacher could say, focusing on a specific behavior, “You did poorly on this text.” That puts the responsibility with the student.
At the capacity level the teacher could say, “You are not very good at this kind of material, your capabilities for math or spelling – or whatever it is – are not well developed”. This has a wider implication.
On a value level the teacher could say, “Oh well, it is not important. What is important is that you enjoy learning”. The teacher is reinforcing the belief that it is not important ti get a good grade, but that enjoying learning is important. Now we have jumped to the level of belief. This goes beyond the subject area to the whole process of learning.
On the level of identity, the teacher can say, “You are a poor student” or “You are a learning disabled person” or “You are not a mathematician”. This touches the child’s whole being. This level of identity is different from level of capability. It is different to believe that I’m not capable of excelling in a particular subject than to believe that I am a stupid person.
If I take something on as part of my identity it begins to have a very profound impact.