3 Steps to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs are the thoughts, opinions, and beliefs that you have of yourself that negatively impact your life by holding you back from growing in your personal or professional life. Another way to think about limiting beliefs is that they are your self-doubts about yourself that you internally believe to be true.
Everyone has limiting beliefs. These beliefs stem from something called your “programming.” Your programming consists of all the information that you were given about yourself and the world at a very young age, usually from your primary caretakers. This programming is what formed your identity to be built in the years to come, which is who you believe you are in the world. The information around your identity is what forms your BELIEFS (what you think is true of yourself and the world).
One of the first things I do with the women who I Life Coach is identify their limiting beliefs so that we can work to overcome them. Here’s what some of their limiting beliefs look like:
I’m not as smart as my colleagues.
Other people always get more praise and recognition than I do.
I’m fat and lazy. I’ll never lose the weight.
I’m not qualified or deserving of the job I really want.
Life Coaching is a great way to reprogram your beliefs about yourself and the world around you. When you overcome your limiting beliefs, you will have a more positive mindset, gain confidence, and create a sense of self-assuredness. Below are 3 steps you can take to start overcoming your own limiting beliefs.
Identify your limiting beliefs. Create a list of all of your self-doubts and limiting beliefs. What are the negative things that you tell yourself in your own mind? Write them all down as a list and really get them out on paper. When you write them down, you become more aware of your beliefs and take away their power.
Flip each limiting belief into a new statement that is more positive and more true. For each limiting belief, write down an opposite statement that is more positive and more true. For example, we can flip “I’m not as smart as my colleagues'' to: “I’ve earned my place here. I have all the qualities I need. I’ve come so far.”
Self-regulate your thoughts. This means, when one of your limiting beliefs comes to mind, you consciously recognize the thought as a limiting belief. Rather than listen to the negative thought as truth, you make a purposeful decision to intentionally flip the thought into a more positive, more true belief that will propel you forward, rather than hold you back. This takes some mental practice and brain training. However, when you start to flip the negative beliefs into more positive thoughts, you’ll notice that your behaviors and actions will follow.
