Success is 80% psychology, 20% mechanics.
Tony Robbins
When it comes to achieving success, limiting beliefs are major game-stopper! Whether you are climbing the career ladder, building a business or trying to balance parenting and everything else… limiting beliefs do nothing but cause you stress and unhappiness.
Why You Need To Care
It is incredibly important to understand how our beliefs help drive our decisions. Beliefs, and the companion memorized emotions, make it easy to operate on autopilot. I don’t know about you, but I would rather not operate on autopilot, especially when in uncharted territory.
Our belief systems are very powerful. At their core, belief systems are how we make sense of the world. Even when the world makes no sense. Interestingly enough, “reason cannot prove the beliefs it is based upon. Beliefs arise through experience…Beliefs, reason, and experience, are based upon each other…This is where relative understanding lies.” http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/FOS/cfp/what-are-belief-systems.pdf
Limiting beliefs are those that constrain us in some way. The only way these limiting beliefs hold any weight is because we’ve decided they are true. If you think about it, there are a lot of limiting beliefs out there that are generally accepted by the majority of people. For example, “time is money,” “you can’t have it all,” and “it’s impossible for a woman to succeed in a man’s world,” are all generally accepted limiting beliefs.
The limiting beliefs that have been accepted by the collective may or may not be based upon our individual, past experiences. Yet we still allow them to shape our belief system.
RELATED: MINDSET SHIFT = RESULTS
Take a Look Back
But, how many personally acquired limiting beliefs are you holding on to? More than likely these have been collected over your lifetime through your own unique experiences and have been developed unconsciously. The problem is that these limiting beliefs keep you from experiencing the life you desire and keep you emotionally stuck.
For instance, “I can’t have a job in finance because I’m not good at math.”
This limiting belief is probably based upon a few poor math scores from long ago as well as someone reinforcing that math may not be your strong suit, which is why it feels so true. As a matter of fact, it feels so true to us that it eventually becomes part of our identity and will keep us from pursuing certain careers or being good stewards of our finances. It becomes our excuse for not excelling in that particular area.
Additional common limiting beliefs are:
- I don’t deserve to be happy, wealthy, thin/healthy, successful, loved {insert adjective here}
- I’ll never be enough
- I’ll never have enough money, time, things, resources {insert object here}
If our ability to live the life that we desire is simply based upon our beliefs, then why aren’t all of us living the dream?
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to change limiting beliefs because either we feel that things just are what they are or we’ve been living with them for so long that there isn’t any point to trying to change them. Or, they have become such a part of our identity that they feel impossible to overcome.
RELATED: STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS – LOOK HOW FAR YOU’VE COME!
3 Steps to Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
It may be difficult, but it IS POSSIBLE to change limiting beliefs. So, how do you begin to break through your limiting obstacles so that you can move from a position of disempowered to full strength? Here are three simple steps:
- Ask what is holding you back: Ask yourself what unspoken assumptions or limiting beliefs are holding you back from achieving what you desire. Sometimes they are obvious and sometimes it takes a little effort to really identify the constraint.
- Ask if it’s really true:Once you recognize the limiting belief, ask yourself if it really is true? Doing this helps challenge the unspoken assumptions you are operating under. If you find it not to be true, the context of the belief changes, changing your core belief and ways of reasoning.
- Ask what if it did not exist:Finally, break through your limiting emotion by asking yourself what you would do if this thought didn’t exist. Complete this step by listing three specific things you can do to disprove the belief and then go do them. Taking action will break the pattern of your limiting belief.
While these steps are simple in nature, it takes discipline and persistence to completely eradicate a limiting belief. But by challenging limiting assumptions and then acting to disprove the assumptions, the movement from disempowered to full strength will be undeniable not only to you but to those around you.
What Would You Accomplish If You Believed You Could?
Bonus ~ Switch Your Limiting Beliefs to Empowering Beliefs
As a bonus, here are 10 Empowering Beliefs (the opposite of limiting beliefs!) shared by Tony Robbins in his article “The Power of Beliefs: How Our Meanings Decide Our Destiny.”
- The past does not equal the future.
- There is always a way if I’m committed.
- There are no failures, only outcomes—as long as I learn something I’m succeeding.
- If I can’t, I must; if I must, I can.
- Everything happens for a reason and a purpose that serves me.
- I find great joy in little things… a smile… a flower… a sunset.
- I give more of myself to others than anyone expects.
- I create my own reality and am responsible for what I create.
- If I’m confused, I’m about to learn something.
- Every day above ground is a great day.
What are you limiting beliefs? How can you change them to empowering beliefs?
Share your thoughts and comments below!
To Your Amazing Success!
Stacy!
STACY OLDFIELD
After nearly 25 years in Corporate America, Stacy launched Minerva Management Partners as a way to combine those years of business experience with her life coaching certification and love for coaching women. Minerva Management Partners is a business coaching practice designed to support women entrepreneurs committed to launching and growing their business. Also, as a Results Coach with Robbins Research International, Stacy helps business women to focus their ideas and efforts and holds them accountable for achieving their goals. Whether it’s helping women discover creative solutions to their business challenges, coaching them to be clear and decisive, or helping them see and take action on new opportunities, Stacy guides them to achieve the business and career results they are seeking. Stacy is also the creator of the Minerva 3-Day Networking Challenge and the Network Like a Boss Lady On-Demand training program. Stacy has been invited to speak to many audiences within South Carolina including the Center for Women, Women Entrepreneurs of Charleston, the Women of the Workforce program of the Naval Information Warfare Center (SPAWAR), Charleston Women in Business, Association of Fundraising Professionals, SCANPO, graduate classes at both The Citadel and the College of Charleston (CofC), and Leadership CofC. She currently serves as a mentor through the Women of Excellence Program at Xavier University and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Beautiful Gate Center and on the advisory board of the SC Women’s Business Center.
