Our beliefs are responsible for shaping our future and our perception of the world we live in. It is the beliefs that form our values of right and wrong, steer our life choices, how we observe people around us, our opinions, ethos, the circumstances, and more.
We embrace beliefs for everything, and they have an unswerving impact on what we attain and what we lose. When your beliefs are unshackled, your accomplishments become graceful and straightforward, and your efforts are more aligned with the results you look forward to achieving. But if you are nurturing yourself with self-limiting beliefs, then you are in distress because it can often feel like an endless effort only to find out that you are back at the bottom, our beliefs shape our perception of the world.
Let’s start from the beginning, what is a belief?
Is the natural acceptance of how things are and how they should be from our perspective. These thoughts are so convincing because they are a recital that you have been practicing throughout your life instinctively.
But, when do they become limiting?
You often find that it is your beliefs that can either help you or hinder you. Sometimes you don’t realize what is holding you back, or maybe you do know but just don’t dare to confront the truth. This is what a limiting belief does to you, it can hold you back from achieving your full potential but convinces you otherwise. Even though you have the immense capability to succeed, your beliefs about yourself and the world around you can hinder your performance and actions. These profoundly deep-rooted limiting beliefs are manipulating the out-turns and you might not be realizing it. When you foster such beliefs, even instinctively, they can damage your capabilities through your decisions centered on these beliefs. These are the mental obstacles that you are creating for yourself. In his book, ‘30 Days: Change Your Habits, Change Your Life’, Marc Reklau stated, “Nobody can impose your beliefs on you. It’s always you who in the last instance can permit a belief to be true for you or not!” Therefore it’s necessary to face our limiting beliefs and take over our life.
How Do We Develop Them?
According to research from the National Science Foundation, our brains can produce almost 50,000 thoughts every day. We repeat 95% of these interpretations in our minds daily. You choose how you think and what you can or cannot do, and this creates your belief which, ultimately, becomes your outlook and mentality. Your outlook encourages your decisions and actions, which shape your future.
Concerning the limiting beliefs in your work setting or career choices, negative thoughts can dominate both inspiration and self-esteem. For instance, you are working on a new course but lack the self-confidence to offer an improved solution to the problem that can bring astonishing outcomes, but you restrain yourself to do that due to insecurities or a poor vision of yourself.
Understanding the most frequent limiting beliefs will support you to recognize them if they occur. Let’s talk about the most common ones:
- “I’m not good enough” is a thought that most of us have endured at some point in our lives. It encourages self-accusing and self-disapproving behaviors. This belief always holds us back and we often handcuff ourselves and fail to benefit from those great opportunities, associations, and circumstances that can support us accomplish what we sought after.
- “I’m too old or too young”. This kind of mindset occurs when you judge your potential based on your age and will always restrict you from thinking big and you limit your choices yourself. This can feel off-putting and frightening. Age is just a number, it’s your potential, self-confidence, and creativity that counts.
- “I don’t have enough time”, This belief often mimics “If I take a break from this I will fall behind,” These are your self-reminders about the shortage of time and postponing the exploits that you “ought to” do for yourself for another time.
- “I’m not talented enough” means you don’t trust your intellect and don’t realize your ability to stand out from the rest. You are convinced that you don’t have anything diverse and innovative to propose from those who share the same designation or accreditation or are in the same industry. This limiting belief can derail your self-assurance and your potential to credit your exceptional intellect and outrival.
- “I don’t have enough money” might be an excuse masking itself as a rather logical defense. The lack of money to invest in a project is an issue that can be addressed in multiple ways. Accessing a financial advisor might be a first step to receiving hints on the solutions that might fit you best.
- “I don’t have enough experience” This is a typical justification for not taking the first step. There is no factual cause why you are not skilled and competent in taking the initiative. Experience just doesn’t appear out of thin air, you gain it by starting somewhere. Take the first step and the rest will follow.
How To Overcome Them?
The initial step of overpowering self-limiting beliefs is to recognize them, realize their influence, detect their cause, and evaluate their rationality. After you comprehend their nature and origin, the next stage is to remove any perishing self-limiting beliefs that are causing the turbulence. One approach to incapacitating a limiting belief is to create its substitute. Instead of telling yourself “I am not good enough” tell yourself “I am good enough, I’ve done it before”. Furthermore, disabling self-limiting beliefs is deliberately confronting them rather than flinching in distress. It is a consistent and intended struggle to stun limiting beliefs. And it requires this equal sum of intentionality to force them out. Make sure to keep recognizing and addressing deep-rooted negative beliefs along with new ones to remove upcoming barriers to your accomplishments. Heed the advice of Steve Maraboli “Free yourself from the imprisonment of your own limiting beliefs and prejudices.”