Hello Empowered ones!
Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.. Do you remember saying that when you were a kid? Now, do you remember whether or not you hesitated to step on cracks because of this as a kid, because you believed that it was true?
I love this because it’s a super exaggerated example of a limiting belief and not all of them are as easy to spot as this common rhyme and that may be keeping you from greatness… or at least from doing things that you would actually like to do.
So, how do you spot a limiting belief? Here’s a great self check ; How often do you, but…?
Limiting beliefs often follow a but. Ie..,” I would love that but, I’m not good at that sort of thing”.” I wish I could, but I don’t know how”.Have you ever made a new years resolution and then butted yourself out of it before starting? Or sometimes it’s just the part that would follow the but,” I’m too far along for that to make a difference, there’s nothing that I can do about my situation, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…” totally not true, by the way.
Often we don’t even realize that we’re using these beliefs to stop us from doing things that would make us healthier, make a good connection with someone, or enrich our lives!
So, how do we stop limiting ourselves this way now that we’ve learned how to spot when we’re doing it?
The easiest way is to remove the but and add a “so”. “I would love that… so, I’ll do it.”, “I wish I could do that, so I’ll learn how.”
If the belief or a but still hangs you up, look closer at it. It’s a belief and as we’ve discovered with cracks in the first paragraph, it may not be true. Whether it’s true or not, how is believing this affecting you? Do you have to keep believing this? Can you choose another belief?
Yes, you can! A belief is a choice that we don’t know we’re choosing.
Now for the best part, replace this limiting belief with an Empowering one. Like these:
-It takes time to get good at things and if I enjoy it, it doesn’t matter if I’m good at it.
-Maybe old dogs don’t learn new tricks because of that saying and people don’t try to teach them.
-I can grow and change as I choose.
Now watch out for those buts.
Happy new year
What are limiting beliefs? A limiting belief is a state of mind or belief about yourself that restricts you in some way. These beliefs are often false assumptions you make about yourself that can cause a number of negative results.
What can you do about limiting beliefs?
- Identify one of your limiting beliefs. The first step to overcoming your limited beliefs is in identifying what they are.
- Recognise that it is just a belief.
- Challenge your belief.
- Recognise the potentially damaging consequences of holding this belief
- Adopt a new belief.
- Put it into practice.
