Lets start with understanding what limiting beliefs are. Limiting beliefs are some assumptions we believe to be true that are holding us back from achieving what we are capable of. These beliefs could be about us, some person or the way the world works.
Somehow we have programmed our subconscious mind to believe these beliefs to be true and believe it so strongly that it becomes an excuse to not being able to achieve our goals.
“I am not good enough. I am not worthy of any success and money. I never do anything right. No one likes me. No one wants to help me. I am so young and no one older would come to me for help because they wont take me seriously. It’s not spiritual to have lots of money. I don’t trust myself.”
Don’t we relate to all or some of these limiting beliefs at some level? I recently started my journey of being a Life Coach and got the opportunity to help few people. Interestingly, most of the people were facing one common issue- Limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs led to a feeling of low in self worth, low confidence level and eventually took them down in a downward spiral of depression and anxiety. So I thought to address this issue to a wider audience and give some strategies to overcome these limiting beliefs.
Limiting beliefs are the stories we keep telling ourselves and why certain things play out the way they do in our lives.
One client of mine was such a risk taker that he left Africa and moved to England with the dream of creating a better life for himself. He learnt so much about himself along the way. He learnt about his shortcomings and made every attempt to overcome them. He realized he wasn’t good at public speaking. Instead of sitting on his hands he did a public speaking course and went in front of complete strangers and spoke on random topics. Somedays he did excellent job and somedays he felt he could have done so much better. Along his journey in a new country, he found his purpose in life. He found his true calling to help people find out their purpose in life. He even curated a course for that. He left his job at the time of COVID to fully focus on building his business to help people figure out their life purpose. Now that’s what I call passion.
Now you must be thinking there is nothing stopping such a guy. That’s where you are wrong. His limiting beliefs were stopping him. His family and friends constantly kept telling him that he is crazy to leave his stable job at this time. He has not much money and he will face financial concerns. These limiting beliefs were making him doubt himself and reduce his confidence level in following his passion. Before even giving himself a chance and worried about his finances, he believed that he wont be able to make much money. After a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) session with him I made him realize that these are just limiting beliefs he heard along the way and helped him change these limiting beliefs into the positive ones.
Each time these limiting beliefs come into your mind, acknowledge how you feel and say no to these beliefs, always keep the higher purpose in mind and move forward.
Always focus on how can you serve others and start from there. Think about limiting beliefs as something coming in your way to serving others and change the story.
Another client of mine was a strong woman who had a full time job and would also make jewelry as a hobby and like me was a life coach too.
She came to me with an issue of not being able to finally start as a life coach because she felt she wont be able to get clients. Upon some digging , she realized that this fear came from her being the first one in her family to venture into a business. She also saw her friends struggle with getting clients for their businesses.
All these beliefs made her stop herself from serving others. After our NLP session together, she regained her confidence and was ready to start working on her coaching business and helping people.
Steps to overcome your beliefs:
1. Determine your goal. Understand clearly what you truly want to do. To understand what your true passion is, understand the difference between goals and missions in life.
Mission would be the ultimate purpose in life and goal would be supporting that purpose. The most aligned life would be the one in which everything you do is aligned to the mission.
For example, my mission is to empower others to see their true magic, understand what they are made up of and what how much they are capable of achieving. To fulfill this mission, one of my goals was to be a life coach.
2. What are the blocks? Once you know what your goal is, look at all the things that are coming in the way of achieving them and work on each one of them.
These could be doing some course or certification to be a doctor or a counselor. These could also be limiting beliefs such as I am not good enough, I am too young for this, I never know what to do, I wont be able to make money in this field (starving artists), My parents are not supportive so I don’t think I can do it, I am not confident enough to face it, People will laugh at me, I don’t look pretty/ handsome, I have fear of failure, I have fear of loosing.
These are all the limiting beliefs that stop us from taking a step forward. Not take each of the beliefs you have and dig deeper:
· Where did this belief come from?
· Is this belief you chose subconsciously or did I hear it from somewhere?
· How is this belief impacting other areas of your life?
· What are the positive things this belief is doing for you? Keeping you safe? Saving you from disappointment? Keeping you protected?
3. Now think of each belief and ask yourself if this really true?
Be true to yourself and ask yourself that do you really think your belief is true or do use it as an excuse to keep gaining the benefits you are getting from believing its true?
If you think you are not pretty or handsome enough, ask yourself if this really true? By whose standards you are not pretty or handsome enough? Catch yourself at these moments when these beliefs creep into your mind.
4. Leave the baggage that’s weighing you down
Create your new story and say no to the old track record you have been playing in your mind your entire life.
Unless you leave the past behind, you wont be able to move forward. Let go of what you believed in so far that wasn’t serving you. Your thoughts create your reality. Create your new reality by positive thoughts and say goodbye to whatever doesn’t serve you.
It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen. This is true for both limiting and positive beliefs. Rewrite your story and add more positive beliefs in your life. Be a creator of your own destiny.
“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn’t have the courage to say “yes” to life?” ― Paulo Coelho
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