Are your limiting beliefs preventing you from thriving?
“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them” – Anthony de Mello
A limiting belief is something you believe about yourself that restricts you from reaching your potential.
“We learn our belief systems as very little children, and then we move through life creating experiences to match our beliefs. Look back in your own life and notice how often you have gone through the same experience.” Louise L. Hay
Beliefs can be made in a moment of anger or frustration or resentment, or jealousy in response to a certain event or experience and become these nagging voices inside our head. We can either address them and replace with more empower beliefs or they can hold us captive.
They are stories that we repeat to ourselves and are formed between the ages of 3-7 years old. Most of the time they don’t even belong to us. They come from our parents, our grandparents, school teachers, the news, friends, siblings, newspapers and simply by accepting them, they become our own.
LIMITING BELIEFS ARE:
“I’m not good enough.”
“I have to be perfect.”
“I’m too old.”
“It’s too late to change.”
“That’s just the way I am.”
“I don’t want to as for what I want because, what if I get rejected?”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
“I can’t do x because of y.”
“People can’t be trusted because they always let me down.”
“Only when I have x will I be happy.”
SAYS WHO?! Who told you that? When did you decide to believe that? Is that what you really want to believe? Are you going to let other people restrict you to what you can and can’t do based on their beliefs?
What’s the big deal you might be thinking? We decided to believe what we believe from what happened in the past. Let’s move on. That’s all well and good, however, on any given day we have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts. According to some research, the majority of those are exactly the same as the day. What’s even more alarming, 80% of what we think is negative.
It stands to reason that YOU and YOUR thoughts, whether they’re beliefs you formed a long time ago or what you formed yesterday, are the only obstacle truly getting in the way of living the life you want.
Removal of limiting beliefs from your unconscious mind and replacing with empowering ones is the single most powerful thing you can do to improve your life.
Steps to ditching those old beliefs:
1. Become conscious of it and write it down.
2. Acknowledge that they are beliefs, not truths! This is VITAL!!
3. Identify how you respond to this belief. How does it make you feel, what actions does it entail.
4. Try on a different belief. Rewrite it the way you want it. Make it empowering.
5. You must start taking action!!!! Get out of your comfort zone. Try something new that is going to break the shackles of that old belief.
6. Note how changing your beliefs changes your outcome and your world.
7. We are all worthy, capable of infinite greatness, deserving of wealth, love and happiness and it is our divine right to claim that. Start rewiring your beliefs today.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Blog written by Jayne Robinson, Personal performance coach and NLP practitioner. Click here to find out more about her.
