Are you having trouble reaching your goals despite having the desire to do so? Are you having trouble maintaining healthy relationships? Do your fitness goals seem to fail the minute you start an exercise program? You might be dealing with some limiting beliefs.
What’s a limiting belief? It’s a belief you hold in your unconscious mind about yourself, other people, or the world. It’s not true, but you believe it’s true. Limiting beliefs develop in childhood when your rational brain has yet to develop enough to properly process your experiences. It’s a natural and normal part of growing up. Everyone develops a few limiting beliefs on the path to adulthood.
Your brain created your limiting beliefs to protect you. It thought they would keep you safe from danger or (usually emotional) harm. Now that you’re an adult, however, these beliefs are causing more harm than good. But you’re hanging onto them because your unconscious still believes they’re protecting you.
Here’s an example of self-sabotage caused by limiting beliefs. Let’s say you have trouble maintaining relationships. You’re always afraid your partners are going to reject you. Instead of working on the relationship, you break it off before your partner has a chance to do so. This indicates a limiting belief known as the fear of rejection, especially if this is a pattern you repeat.
Another common example: You have financial problems. Despite making more than enough money, you never seem to have enough to pay your bills and buy the things you need. You’re constantly broke. You know how to manage money, but you can’t seem to do it. This indicates another common limiting belief, which is “I’m no good at managing money.”
These are only two examples out of an infinite number of possibilities.
Do you think you might be sabotaging yourself due to limiting beliefs?
Look at the areas of your life where you have trouble reaching your goals. Anything can be subject to limiting beliefs; your career, relationships, money, and fitness are common ones, but it could be anything.
Reflect on the problem areas and look for any patterns. Patterns of behavior that consistently cause you strife, struggle and frustration need to be examined, and are usually an indication of a limiting belief. Once you’ve identified the presence of a limiting belief, work to understand what it is and put it into words. You might bounce from one job to another because you’re scared of failing, trying something new, or letting someone down.
“Fear of failure” is the operative limiting belief.
You might be avoiding asking out someone you’re interested in because you’re afraid of rejection, intimacy, or both. Once you’ve recognized that you have a limiting belief and identified it, you can start working to overcome it so that you can reach your goals.
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