Don't be Crippled by Your Limiting Beliefs - 4 Steps to Success

What are they?

Limiting beliefs cripple you from succeeding. It means there is something your subconscious or conscious believes that limits you in any way. They are a huge road block that cause you to stop what you are doing and second guess yourself, and ultimately feel bad about yourself in some way. They are toxic to you. You must try your best to remove them.

How to spot them?

Realizing you have one is one of the most important steps. No one likes to fail, right? So, just knowing the belief is stopping your progress and happiness is enough to make you think twice about it next time it pops up. There is are easy ways to identify these limiting beliefs. They exist almost every time that you use the following words; no, I don’t want to, I don’t have, I can’t, I shouldn’t. Also, they typically appear at times you get angry at yourself, or at someone else, as well as when you are nervous or scared about something. For example, if you were to say, “I can’t do that”, somewhere in your life you were told, or told yourself, you weren’t good at it or couldn’t do.

Ask yourself “Why can’t I?” You may find that you can’t because your mom always told you “no” whenever you wanted to, so now it became a natural reaction. Or maybe a friend made fun of you for doing it. Somewhere in your life an action occurred that you linked it to, without realizing that makes you feel you are unable to accomplish whatever it is you were asked to, or wanted to, do. Another example, you are nervous to go ask your boss for a raise. Ask yourself “Why am I nervous?” You may know that your boss is really nice. He thinks you’re doing a great job. So there is no logical reason for your nervousness. So it must be linked to another time you asked someone for something and were turned down. Maybe you think you don’t deserve it. Ask yourself “Why?”

“Why?” is the key word to help you identify what beliefs are limiting you. Dig deep with the why questions. Here is a typically thought process you could go through to find the real answers behind why you are stopping yourself from succeeding or having fun.

• Why do I think this? Because that happened.

• So why is that bad? Because I felt like this.

• Why did you feel like this? Because I didn’t succeed the first time.

• Why didn’t I succeed? Because I was nervous to do it?

• Why were you nervous? Because I didn’t think I’d be good at it?

• Why didn’t you think you’ll be good at it? Because someone told me I wasn’t

And there you have it, you will find it linked to one person, thought, or action from the past that is unrelated to the topic at hand, but affects your decisions for the rest of your life. That’s why it’s important to be able to spot them. You will know when you find it. It will be an ‘Ah Ha’ moment. You can then realize how silly it is for that thing to be affecting you still.

There is one other type of limiting belief that comes around. It is in the form of negative idioms that everyone says and don’t realize are hurting them. For example, “You have to work hard to climb the corporate ladder”, or “Money doesn’t grow on trees”, or “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Those negative idioms get engrained into our day to day practices and subconsciously we believe them. Those need to be eliminated as well. Think of all the other common phrases that everyone says out there, and ask yourself is that saying helping me grow and succeed, or is it limiting me and my potential.

Simple Steps to Eliminate them

So now what? Now that you know what the limiting belief is you have to get rid of it somehow. There are quite a few ways to help you do this. However, I’ve found these to be the most effective.

1. Realize how ridiculous your belief is. You have to fully understand that the belief you have is stopping your success. You have to want to get rid of it, as much as you’d want to get cockroaches out of your bed. Maybe that is a little extreme, but you get the point. These beliefs are toxic and untrue. A fun way to realize how ridiculous they are is to say them out loud in a Mickey Mouse voice. As soon as you hear yourself saying it out loud it just doesn’t hold the same weight anymore. Then, adding a silly voice to it makes it become funny and ridiculous. You have to be able to laugh at yourself for allowing something so ridiculous to stop you in any way.

2. Create an alternate belief. Change the belief into something that serves your best interest instead. It can be as simple as the opposite of what the limiting belief is. Just make sure that you are changing it to a belief that you do or can genuinely believe. If you don’t believe in what you are telling yourself, it won’t work. You’ll subconsciously reject the thought. For example, if the limiting belief is “I’m not good enough”, you could change it to “I am enough”, or “Every day I’m becoming a better me”. Another one could be “I won’t win anyway, so why try”, change it to “You never know, why not?”

3. Make the alternate belief an affirmation. Don’t just replace the belief once and think that is enough. It isn’t! You need to repeat it and think about it as often as you can. So when your negative behavior linked to it shows up, the belief is right up front ready to shoot it down. There are so many techniques and tricks to make affirmations work. There are applications that will at random times throughout the day display the affirmation on your phone. You can write it on post it notes and stick it to your mirror, or computer screen, or in your car. Set a reminder to write the affirmation(s) down each night before bed, or when you wake up. You can also use an object as a reminder, like a new ring, get a tattoo or trinket. So every time you see it you will think of the alternate belief. If using an object I recommend using something you don’t already have. You already have other unrelated feelings and thoughts tied to the things you already own. Whatever you it is choose to do, just do something. Don’t think that you’ll just remember now you know, because you won’t.

4. Pay attention to your thoughts. The same belief will show up attached to multiple different actions, and thoughts, you have. You have to be mindfully keeping an eye out for the next time they show up. One simple way is to just tell your brain to flag them for you, and then believe it will. Now that your subconscious is aware of the limiting belief, and you are actively trying to change it, you will find that you see the other places they affect. But only if you believe you are actively looking out for them. Ask a friend, or your family member, to help you find them too. Tell them your tell tales, i.e. saying “I can’t”, or one of the other ways discussed above. Ask them to question you if you start doing it. Once they point it out a few times, you will definitely want to start changing them.

I hope you follow through using these tips and tricks. Life doesn’t have to be hard. It’s only hard if you believe it is. The words you use are powerful. Make sure it is always positive power coming your way.

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