A limiting belief is a state of mind. It is a belief that you hold to be true even though it might not be the reality of the situation. A limiting belief is a threshold you put on yourself. Limiting beliefs can be about you, about the world, and your interactions. It can change the way you act and what you think about yourself. That is why overcoming limiting beliefs is important.
We all have limiting beliefs. We may think everyone has it all put together but everyone at one point has had a limited belief about something. Whether is they aren’t good enough, they won’t make it, or that you can’t learn something.
Examples of limiting beliefs I have had
I used to avoid talking to people on the phone because I didn’t think I had the skills to hold a conversation on the phone. This led to me avoiding talking on the phone.
I thought not having a flat stomach meant my body wasn’t good enough
When I would start at something and not be good at it I would give up on it. Because I thought everyone was born naturally good at things. This included playing sports for fun.
I used to think I wasn’t smart enough for subjects like maths or science.
How to overcome limiting beliefs?
First work on figuring out what your limiting belief is
You can’t work on something if you don’t even know it’s there. So write down 10 things that you think you have thought you can’t achieve or stopped you in some way.
If you can’t think of anything maybe first think of what you want to do if there were no limits of resources, time, money, age, or education.
Now ask yourself why can’t you achieve that. This way you will be able to pinpoint your limiting belief. That is the first step to overcoming your limiting beliefs.
Notice the way you talk to yourself
We sometimes become our worst enemies. We are had on ourselves when we make a mistake becoming our worst critics. Saying things like ‘oh I am so dumb for doing that.’ Would you say that if someone else made a small mistake? Then why be so harsh on ourselves?
Let’s change that. Note down the words you use to talk to yourself. Then work on towards on changing it. You can start by writing it down to come up with what to say to yourself. Then say it out loud. Repeat the same words whenever you talk to yourself negatively.
Changing the way you talk to yourself can increase the belief you have in yourself.
Understand the growth mindset
If you understand that you aren’t born with something and that effort and different strategies are required that will help you put that effort in. We have this belief that everyone was born good. We don’t see what happened in the background. How they got there. The blood and sweat they put in. So when it is difficult for us to do something we think we weren’t born for this.
Some people are better than us at the start but that doesn’t mean with practice we can’t there. My mother once told me I have noticed you start of not being great at things but then months later I see that you have accelerated at it. That made me look into my past life and I noticed that was true.
So, look at the past evidence available to you. You will realize that when you have put in the effort you have gotten there. That will help you overcome your limiting belief through growth mindset.
Start small to overcome limiting beliefs
Don’t expect to reach your end goal straight away. If you put in 1 percent every day over time you will make a miraculous change. You will look back and be like I have come so far.
Look at the lack of evidence
Once you have identified your limiting belief check for the past evidence. Is there any evidence to justify your limiting belief?
Let’s take me not being able to play a sport with effort for example. There was no proof I couldn’t do it I had never done it. Instead, if I examined my life and saw everything I had achieved with effort I would have a different view
The abundance mindset
We are made to believe if someone else has something we can’t get. Instead, we should be looking at it if they got somewhere that means it is possible. Something simple like that can change the way you view things.
Check out this video to overcome limiting beliefs.
In the video, there is an ant that is trapped in a circle made by a pen. Imagine a pen limited the ant’s belief into thinking that it couldn’t escape. That is what we humans are like. We trap ourselves by our beliefs setting limits that aren’t there. Hence, overcoming limiting beliefs is important.
If the ant was a human what would you tell them? Now tell yourself that
