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Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs are those things you believe about yourself that place limitations on your abilities. They may be conscious or unconscious, founded or unfounded, but either way you will never rise above your self-belief.

“If you think you can…. or if you think you can’t…you’re right!” – Henry Ford

You can do anything if you make up your mind to do it. Determination always finds a way around obstacles. It all depends on what you believe about yourself.

Our thoughts and beliefs colour our vision and perception of the world. They determine our actions or inactions.

Thoughts affect feelings. Feelings affect behaviour. Behaviour determines result. It all begins with our thoughts, since we have to accept a thought for it to become a belief.

Whatever you believe becomes your reality. You do not believe what you see; rather you see what you already believe. For this reason, two people facing the same situation may interpret it differently, act according to their different beliefs and experience different outcomes.

Limiting beliefs stifle our progress. They leave us trying to act forward, but believing backward. They have been described as a malicious thermostat; you can take all the action you want, and in the right direction too. But anytime you make progress, the thermostat pulls you back to conform to your inner negative programming.

Your thoughts and beliefs are your programming. You cannot move beyond them. To get out of the vicious cycle of acting forward but believing backward you’ve got to identify the negative thoughts, and eliminate them, consciously and continuously. Sometimes it’s a lifelong battle, but one that you can win a day at a time.

You can get rid of limiting beliefs. But first you have to identify them. They could be lurking in the recesses of our minds without our awareness. Talking with a friend or consulting with a coach could give you more objective feedback as to their existence.

Once you have identified them, these limiting beliefs must be challenged every time they rear their heads. You must consciously reject any thought or suggestion that you are limited in any way. There is nothing you cannot do. You simply need to find the way and follow it to conclusion.

When self-limiting thoughts are starved of attention, they wither and die. Whatever you give attention to magnifies: whatever you do not attend to shrivels up and dies. Jim Rohn says it aptly: “You cannot take the mild approach to the weeds in your mental garden. You have got to hate weeds enough to kill them. Weeds are not something you handle; weeds are something you devastate.”

No one is better than you are. If others do better, it is simply because they have had more practise, more experience, and/or they know something that you don’t. And all this can be remedied. God created us all equal. It’s what we build upon His initial investment that makes the difference.

In a nut shell, you must control the thoughts that play around in your mind. Admit and nurture only those that enhance your positive programming and move you to your goals.

Limiting beliefs could come from the things people said to us and about us while we grew up. Now is the time to devastate these weeds. They could also come from listening to negative people, watching and listening to negative TV and radio programs, reading negative books and magazines, and repeatedly hearing negative song lyrics. Always be on the look-out for possible sources, not fearfully, but with the view to detect and devastate them.

A better way to deal with self-limiting thoughts is to prevent them in the first place. Examining the list of sources above will give you an idea of where their opposites (self-empowering beliefs) can be found – in the opposite directions! If you spend time with wholesome people and material, this will build healthy, wholesome thought patterns. A mind that is girded with strong, empowering thoughts is in fit enough condition to resist invasion by these malicious, illegal aliens.

Invest in inspirational books, seminars, CDs etc. Engage in positive self-talk or affirmations. And just in case self-limiting thoughts slip through unnoticed, perform periodic “mind-sanitation exercises” where you do some self-evaluation. Sometimes a seminar attendance or listening to an audio program is what will alert you of this incursion.

How can you expect others to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself?

It’s true, we are the sum total today of our past thoughts and experiences, but the good news is today is the first day in the rest of your life. Time to draw a line in the sand and move forward in a new direction, replacing the negative with bucket loads of positive. You can if you believe you can!

Have a awesome week, you deserve it!

Cheers

Grant Herbert

The People Builder

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