A limiting belief is one that prevents you from accomplishing anything that you want to accomplish.
These guys suck, and it is in your best interest to get rid of them as quickly as possible. When it comes to accomplishing your goals, you are usually your own worst enemy, largely because of the power these limiting beliefs can hold over you.
So let’s get rid of these limiting beliefs, shall we?
Identify Your Limiting Beliefs
The first step, of course, is to figure out what your limiting beliefs are.
We all have them. Some can be pretty obvious, but others can be quite hidden, insidiously chipping away at our self-esteem and rearing their ugly head at the most inappropriate times…
Since this is an ongoing process, I don’t believe its necessary to devote a huge amount of time to delve deep into your mind, “find yourself", or put in much effort at all in the beginning.
Not that you shouldn’t. More effort = uncovering more limiting beliefs. But a great many of them can be found without much reflection.
Instead, spend five minutes thinking about what your limiting beliefs might be. You should at least be able to come up with a few. Here are some examples of what they might look like:
- “I’m too short/fat/bald/etc. to have women attracted to me."
- “I’m never going to be rich. You need money to make money."
- “Only people who suck up to the boss get promoted, and I don’t do that.”
- “I’m too sexy for my shirt."
Wait, how did that last one get in there?
We all have dozens of beliefs like this which prevent us from getting where we want to go. For now, just pick a few of the more obvious ones, and I will help you build leverage to remove them.
Note that this is all somewhat preliminary.
We are not talking about actually removing them (yet), and we aren’t talking about finding ALL of them. Eventually that will be a part of the program, but this is just the beginning.
Build Leverage Against Your Limiting Beliefs
So, you have a couple limiting beliefs written down, but you don’t know what to do with them.
It is not an easy process to remove a belief and implant a more empowering one, but it can be done.
The first step is to create leverage against it. In other words, you need to really want to get rid of it.
“Well Mike, obviously I want to get rid of these limiting beliefs, that’s why I’m here! Who do you think I am?!"
Ok, I understand that you want to eliminate them on the intellectual level.
Perhaps you understand that you won’t reach your goals while you continually sabatauge your own efforts due to these beliefs.
But understanding at the intellectual level usually doesn’t provide the necessary motivation for change.
That’s the key word. Motivation. In order to get motivated, you need to have an emotional investment in ridding yourself of a limiting belief.
I’ve included in this post an audio for you to listen through in order to create leverage against a particular belief you want to be free of.
I did not come up with this exercise, but I did make this recording. Unfortunately, recording it in a crowded computer lab did not lend itself to the best audio quality, so I apologize.
What limiting beliefs do you have which are causing you the most trouble?
Amazing post I’ve already created leverage against my negative beliefs but how do we get rid of them?
I suggest reframing them into something less negative. It helps to imagine a belief you would prefer, and then set out to find evidence in favor of that belief.