I write this blog with one of my aims to empower people to accomplish their full potential and fulfil their dreams.
Are the achievements of your dreams being blocked by emotional clutter? Emotional clutter is made up of those negative emotions from your past experiences, and the limiting beliefs you’ve formed on the way. It can completely block your success, standing in the way of reaching your dreams.
This emotional clutter is responsible for the obstacles you have found on your road to success. So if you’ve been struggling to achieve what you want from your life you need to take a little time to see if your limiting beliefs are holding you back.
A limiting belief is a negative self-perception or programme in our minds and it really does have the power to hold us back from achieving what we really want in life. These beliefs may have been formed by our environment, peer influence or parental influence.
From a very young age we have been influenced by things that were said to us by our parents, other close relatives, teachers or friends. Every experience that we have had is stored in our memory banks and our brain uses these to determine what we can do and more importantly, what we can’t or shouldn’t do.
So we are left with these limiting beliefs that create both mental blocks and negative thoughts in our mind. They limit our ability and our possibilities .
“The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.” Wayne Dyer
The type of things that subconsciously you may say include:
• I’m not good enough to ….
• I’m not worthy of …..
• I could never …..
• I should have …..
• I could have ….
• If only …..
• I’m not pretty enough to …
• I’m not smart enough to …
• I am not…
• I am not good with…
• I will never be able to…
• I don’t deserve…
• I am held back by…
• I always…
• I never…
• I have to…
All these indicate limiting beliefs. They’re just thoughts in our head that have formed an image of the world we live in, that we work with subconsciously. More often than not we aren’t even aware of them. But you can be sure that thoughts of I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I don’t have enough money, and so on are holding you back. They make you doubt yourself and make you believe that you will never succeed. These beliefs become our reality. The can damage our efforts towards success.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
It’s important to realize these beliefs are not reality, and that you can transform these negative, or limiting beliefs with a little effort.
So changing your thoughts and eliminating your limiting beliefs will change your world, it’s that simple.
As our limiting beliefs dwell in our subconscious mind, and we are not aware of them on a conscious level, identifying them entails a conscious effort. You have to get attuned to your thoughts and listen to your inner voice. If you can become aware of what they’re making you think you will be able to change them, and by that, change your life for the better.
It may take some time to uncover your beliefs, but it will be time well spent. The quality of your life depends on it. Spend some time now uncovering and eliminating them and you will improve your life experience to a great extent.
“As a man thinks, so is he; as he continues to think, so he remains.” James Allen
Here’s a step-by-step process to break a limiting belief:
1. Know what they are: You have to uncover what your particular limiting beliefs are. Your fears on a day-to-day to basis give you an insight into your limiting beliefs. On a piece of paper, write some beliefs you have about yourself and life that you’ve come to accept as reality. Especially those that you notice an emotional reaction in your body. By brainstorming and writing these out for yourself, you become aware of them, and can choose to work on overcoming them.
2. Break the Belief: You have allowed yourself to let this limiting belief hold you back, to terrorise you. Pick one of your limiting beliefs. For this belief, find an example where the statement is not true, where you did something or experienced something that was not in alignment with your belief. Find the flaws that counteract this belief. There is always an example that can counter a limiting belief, you just have to find it
3. Know this belief hasn’t served you: Think of all the instances where this belief worked against you, either kept you away from taking action towards something you wanted, or negatively affected you emotionally and thus affected other areas of your life – relationships, health, etc. How has this belief hurt you in the past? Write it down.
4. Find the Source: Dig deep into memories from your past and find what instances brought you to this belief. Be specific and write them down using as many words as needed to describe them.
5. Re-interpret the situation: Nothing has any meaning, unless we give it a meaning. The only power we can give to any external event or scenario, is the power we allow it to have on us. Now, brainstorm for other perspectives that could also explain the external event you identified.
6. What Do You Really Want: So you’ve been truthful to yourself and exposed a negative belief. Now, you need to adopt your new belief and be excited where it will take you, so as not to allow this limiting belief to have influence on you anymore. When we stop feeding something, it dies. By not feeding a limiting belief and instead paying attention to a positive belief, the old belief will die and the new one will take over.
The ability to remove all your roadblocks will transform your life. When you remove your limiting beliefs you will be on the road to achieve your success, and reach your goals, perhaps going far beyond your wildest dreams.
What are some of your limiting beliefs?
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I absolutely believe the words of Wayne Dyer about the way we perceive things. It’s always good to revisit our beliefs and see what’s holding us up on the way to having the life we want..
Corinne – i believe very much in giving my mind a regular health check. This gives us the opportunity to examine our thoughts, valuesc and beliefs to make adjustments when necessary.
I am disappointed to see that I still say many of these limiting things. Even though I have come a long way with regard to self limiting beliefs and thoughts, years of this kind of thinking has had an impact. I am a work in progress. Enjoyed reading your post
Claire – thank you. Don’t be dissapointed. By the facxt you hear what you say, you know what you’re doing, when you’re doing it, which gives you the ability to deal with it. My dad taught me we are all a work in progress, and as long as we can learn one new thing everyday we are advancing.
This blog is full of good advice. Thanks.
Ann – thank you
Great post, Larry.
I especially liked your list. I got to add a few to my own excuses (not)!
Roy – your excuses list is no doubt non existent, and togerher bloggers like us can make the world a better place.
Hi Larry,
Super points here!
IDing the limiting beliefs is the 1st step to take. This can be uncomfortable. OK, it can really suck….lol….but it’s the only way to rid yourself of these handcuffing ideas.
You can’t get over something that’s still in you!
Thanks for sharing your insight.
RB
Ryan – thank you for commenting. Many many years ago i attended an Anthony Robbins seminar. I came to recognise my weaknesses lay in my limiting beliefs. Having found them, i set about removing them. My life changed from that point.