Limiting beliefs are just false assumptions about life events that originate from your own personal perceptions. To have the most positive outcome, people must have as near to true beliefs as possible. Unfortunately, too often people just take other people’s word for it. “It’s going to work this way, and it’s going to work that way.”
Of course, everyone has their own limiting beliefs. The key is when you start believing that things can’t fail or won’t happen, you stop believing in yourself. It becomes self-limiting and sets you up for failure. Self-limiting beliefs can keep you from doing what it is you want to do. Here are a few self-limiting beliefs and how to beat them:
– Beliefs that “the world works against me” are limiting beliefs. I don’t know why this is, but it just is. Some people believe that life is out to get them, and they are the only ones who can’t seem to win in the end. This belief keeps them from doing the things they really want to. If you have one of these limiting beliefs, just break it out of your mind and replace it with another belief: “The world works for me.”
– Beliefs that “I cannot do this.” These limiting beliefs prevent you from even trying. Maybe you’ve told yourself over again that you can’t do something. You may have told yourself that the obstacle is in your mind or that you’re not good enough. Take a minute to consider what it really is that you’re telling yourself in order to justify this kind of limiting belief.
– A belief, “If I do this, it will hurt. It will make me feel uncomfortable or even make my hair go crazy.” If you tell yourself that you cannot do something because of a prior thought or feeling, then you are limiting yourself. Instead of focusing on the thought and the feeling that you’re trying to avoid, redirect your attention onto something else: “I am getting anxious because of this. If I do this, I will feel better.”
– Another one of the most common forms of limiting beliefs is a belief, “Something will go wrong if I do this. I will never be able to do this or else this will fail.” Once again, this kind of thinking keeps you from doing the things that you want to. You’re not doing anything by limiting yourself, are you? By placing a high level of stress on any single act, you are effectively shutting it down.
Instead of focusing on the negative or limiting beliefs, you must focus on your limitless alternatives. Your unlimited alternatives are exactly what you already have in existence: the things that you already are! You do not need to learn new things, you do not need to work at something, you do not need to get another car, and you don’t need to live in another place. Rather than limiting yourself by focusing on your lack of options, you can instead focus on learning all of the things you already possess and start using that as your source of power to create your own path through life.
Limiting beliefs are self-limiting. By changing the way you respond to your belief system, you can change the way you experience life as well. If you want to create a lifestyle where you feel empowered, then you must first start believing that empowerment is possible. Once you have learned to welcome and count your unlimited possibilities, you can choose the resources in your life that are best for you and take the necessary steps toward happiness and success.