If you are working on self growth, you need to work on limiting beliefs first. Limiting beliefs are mental attitudes, ideas or thoughts that one thinks to be absolutely the truth. They tend to have an almost dictatorial effect on one’s life and prevent them from growing on a professional and personal level. It’s not as if they are all true, of course; anyone who has ever been involved in any serious work knows that some truths are just that: facts. But the ones that are followed through your life often aren’t.
There are many ways to work on limiting beliefs. For starters, one can write them down. Make a list of beliefs you hold about yourself, your skills, your talents, your abilities, your interests, your accomplishments, and even your financial situation. Think about why you hold these beliefs, what your experience has been like in the past, and what your opinion is now.
Next, evaluate your list. Decide for yourself whether you believe your statements about the world working in a way that you would like it to work. Remember to be realistic; if things didn’t change, you wouldn’t be here right? Don’t give up on limiting beliefs just because you don’t see evidence that they are actually true. Keep looking for patterns, keep questioning your assumptions, and keep testing your ideas. Only by doing so will you ever find out if you have anything to lose by changing your beliefs.
The biggest pitfall for limiting beliefs is accepting them as truth. Once you have accepted them as fact, it is next to impossible to question them or to even imagine that they might be wrong. If you keep your limiting beliefs quiet, you will find yourself stuck in a pattern that feeds on itself and prevents you from growing. To get out of this rut, take a time-out and allow your beliefs to explore new pathways for you.
While it is good to keep opinions and perceptions in check, it is also important to allow your mind to flow without judgment. Just because something is going wrong in the present does not mean that it will continue to go down that road. Thinking of past mistakes and how you could have changed them while you had the chance can be helpful but it does not necessary lead to a belief in the future being correct. In fact, it could very well lead you to doubt that the present world works at all. It is in the present that you must find the strength to start believing that there is a better world out there and that you can help bring it into existence.
Accepting that there are many ways that limiting beliefs can manifest can be difficult. You may want to dismiss information that challenges your current beliefs, even if you are tempted to do so. The reason for this is that when you dismiss something as inaccurate, you open yourself up to more confusion and even hurt and confusion. This is a dangerous game to play. In order to avoid these feelings of doubt, you must learn to adopt an attitude that allows you to look at any piece of information and discard it if necessary.
Once you have taken the time to examine and discard your self-limiting beliefs, you must then create new beliefs in order to support your goals. Self-limiting beliefs, when allowed to persist, can prevent you from reaching your goals. If you allow these beliefs to dictate what you do, you will never be able to live your life to the fullest! This requires that you replace your self-limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs that create the framework for you to live the life you really desire.
One example of this process is to replace your limiting beliefs with the following belief: “I am in charge of my experience!” When you say this, you are telling yourself that no one can make you feel like anything but what you make yourself feel like. It sounds simple and is very effective. By believing this, you give yourself the opportunity to make the necessary changes to feel your best!