Free Yourself from Self-Limiting Beliefs

Why do only a handful of people achieve great heights in their lives while most others simply linger around the ‘average’ category? If practice makes perfect, why do so many people not practice enough to make their talent perfect. What stops most people from even starting with something their heart desires?

The answer lies in the role played by ‘limiting beliefs’ in the mind. “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

What are Self-Limiting Beliefs?

Self-Limiting Beliefs, as the term itself suggests, limit what we will or will not do through the course of our lives. They limit our potential, thereby limiting our actions and our level of achievement in the different spheres of life.

How do Self-Limiting Beliefs affect our Lives?

Such beliefs don’t exist only in reference to spheres of activity or achievement. They can exist in reference to our relationships or finances or any other area at all.

Also, there can be strong limiting beliefs and minor limiting ones. The stronger the belief, the farther we will run away from the concerned area or skill.

Yash didn’t get along with his elder sister during his growing up years. Their sibling rivalry often translated into verbal duels in which both of them used the choicest of criticisms for each other.

During such verbal duels, his sister often told him that he will never be able to have a good relationship with anyone. This comment got stuck in Yash’s psyche due to the conviction his sister said it with. He shied away from getting close to friends and maintained an arm’s distance with one and all.

Even when he got married, he could not establish or maintain any kind of emotional intimacy with his wife since he had convinced himself long ago that he simply could not have a good relationship with anyone.

Like a worm, the self-limiting belief stayed in his mind and made him nervous whenever he even thought of getting emotionally intimate with his wife.

To avoid the discomfort the entire thought pattern brought with it, he avoided getting close to others and could never enjoy the emotional comfort a good relationship brings.

How to Get Rid of Them?

Irrespective of how you acquired any particular self-limiting belief, the good news is that you can get rid of it with some dedicated effort.

• The first step in this process is to realize the damage such beliefs cause to your experience of life and then to determine to get rid of them firmly.
• The second step is to identify your limiting beliefs in different aspects of life. Simply becoming aware of any given limiting belief and how it has impacted your life reduces the power of the belief significantly.
• Next, question the basis of the belief by talking to yourself. Is the belief rational and logical enough to be considered as the solemn truth or have you given it that status out of fear of failure? Talk to yourself positively in regard to the belief, next. You will need to do this step a number of times every few days to eradicate the complete power of the belief from your mind.
• Finally, go ahead and do what the belief was stopping you from doing. Be patient with yourself and remember that Rome was not built in a day. Put in consistent effort and you will emerge victorious over the limiting belief.

The happiness and freedom you will experience once you get rid of these sorts of beliefs will feel so very special that it cannot be expressed in words.

Conclusion

Go ahead and get rid of each one of your self-limiting beliefs (work on one at a time) as quickly as you would get rid of a worm in your hand. Their impact, as we have seen above, can be so very self-damaging that you wouldn’t want to carry even one of those around in your mind.