For the longest time in my life I had lived with limiting beliefs. Beliefs like, I don’t have enough money. I don’t know how to handle money if I did have enough. I could never sustain success. I don’t deserve great things. I’m not very smart. I’m not very capable. I don’t have what it takes. I will fail at everything. Other people succeed because they are born with something that I just don’t have. Etc. It feels embarrassing even to write those limiting beliefs out and share them with others. But its true. These are some of the paradigms I lived in for such a long time. The wild part is that I can’t even tell you where all of these limiting beliefs orginated in my life. Some of them I can see clearly where and how they developed, but others, I have no idea.
Do you know the problem with limiting beliefs? As long as you have them, you will NEVER get past them. You can’t sustainably ignore a belief that is continually running in your head, like a looped song.
The other interesting part is that these things aren’t based in any truth. We tell ourselves these lies everyday and most of the time we aren’t aware that we’re lying to ourselves. “I’m just not disciplined enough to eat right and exercise.” “I’ve never been good at connecting with people.” “I’m not lucky enough to get a break.” These lies are based in our heads. That’s where beliefs reside. So how do we move forward? How do we begin to destroy or limiting beliefs? How do we begin to dismantle the many ways that we limit ourselves? By asking questions that begin to smash the foundation of these beliefs.
For example, If your limiting belief is that you don’t have enough money, you could simply ask yourself… Have other people not had enough money and then found a way to make more money?
If your limiting belief is that you couldn’t sustain success, you could ask yourself… Have other people learned how to sustain success and been happy about it?
If your limiting belief is that you don’t deserve great things, you could ask yourself… Have great things happened to other people who didn’t deserve it?
If your limiting belief is that you aren’t smart enough, you could ask yourself… Have other people who weren’t brilliant succeeded?
The answers to these questions not only chip away at the foundation of limiting beliefs, but often can completely change the lenses with which we see the world. Have you identified and recognized your limiting beliefs? How long have you been living with them? In what ways have they effected you? Finally, what questions could you ask that would begin to destroy the limiting beliefs in your life?
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Today I will be aware of my beliefs and point out any that may be limiting. I will actively state the limiting beliefs that I have found and I will ask the right questions to begin dismantling them.