How well do you understand self limiting beliefs and self limiting thought patterns?
Have negative thoughts hindered your efforts to live, learn, and grow? Your personal beliefs about yourself and your life matter more than you may realize. In fact, those beliefs become the very foundation upon which you build your life.
How do you recognize self-sabotaging thoughts?
If you are anything like me, you didn’t really know or think about self-limiting beliefs much. In 2010-2011 was my first really deep look into self-limiting beliefs. It was only because I took a sales assessment to grow my sales skills for my other business. I was very surprised at some of the limiting beliefs I had but was excited to start working on them.
Some common self-limiting beliefs are:
- “I’ll never be able to save any money for retirement.”
- “I guess I won’t ever fall in love again.”
- “Why can’t I find any trustworthy friends?”
- “I’ll be fat forever.”
- “I’m sure Pat will get that promotion over me.”
- “I wish I could take a vacation to Europe, but I know I could never afford it.”
- “How will I ever live the life I want earning what I earn now?”
If you identified some of your limiting thoughts while reading the above examples,
take steps to break your cognitive ties to those thinking patterns.
How do you overcome self-limiting beliefs & self-limiting thought patterns?
In all honesty, I think the first step is awareness. I’d say we all have some self-limiting beliefs, but until we start looking into these ideas we often do not see our thoughts and beliefs as being self-limiting. If we did we would change them, right? Of course!
The next step is exploring if our beliefs are true and seeking alternative ideas or ways to think. This can be a difficult task on our own and I typically recommend seeking help from someone who has experience in this area to guide you on your journey. Reading this article is a good first step.
Next you would want to build a reminder to catch yourself when you slip up and go back to old thoughts. This could be by sharing with your partner or a friend to help remind you if you say or do things related to the topic you are working to change.
Lastly it takes practice doing, thinking, and responding to things differently. I’d recommend picking one limiting belief to work on at a time and them as you make progress it’ll be easier to do the next one or two as you build your confidence around changing these habits.
These can be ingrained from childhood so have grace as it might take a while to “reprogram” your belief system. Would you like a few more strategies?
Focus on these strategies to start thinking in a new direction:
1. Refrain from labeling yourself
2. Take baby steps
When you continually move towards your goals, you’ll gain the momentum to keep on going. Rather than think you’re unable to achieve success, make a plan of achievable steps to ensure you do.
This one is so interesting and motivating if you have a large project like… building a business for example.
I started Hellagood Life in 2019 and every year I can look back on the progress and growth both personally and within the business. It truly does keep me fired up to continue working towards my dream company that is impacting the world in a positive way.
It all happened slowly though. Deciding I want to give this a try. Buying a domain name. Getting web hosting and setting up the first basic website. Then writing the first blog article. Then building the first online course. Then weekly blogging. etc., etc. to where we are today.
You can do the same thing by just deciding you want to do something and breaking it into baby steps and start doing one small thing at a time.
For example, perhaps you’d like a European vacation. Instead of believing you’ll never get there, establish a small weekly savings goal of $20, and keep putting the money aside until you have enough.
You might also watch videos or read some books by Rick Steves to keep building the fire and excitement related to the trip. You could even start looking at travel websites to find travel packages or educate yourself on things you might want to do on your trip.
3. Learn to be your own best friend
Love yourself enough to be your own best friend. Do this by giving yourself the benefit of the doubt. Think positive thoughts such as, “I can do this.” When you practice this, you’ll reject self-limiting thoughts.
In my mindfulness practice and trainings I do several self-compassion meditations to help with this.
4. Believe in yourself
Instead of insisting you’ll “never” do something, say that you can, and then do it. If you turn those negatives into positives, it boosts your self-esteem. Trust that you can accomplish, succeed, and prevail.
If you struggle her see if you can find an accountability partner where you help each other stay focus and motivated on this goal (and others).
5. Assess the truth
Ask yourself, “Is what I’m thinking really true?”
For example, is it an absolute reality that you’ll never be able to save any money at all for retirement? It doesn’t have to be true, unless you strive for that.
Change your mindset by beginning your retirement fund today. At the end of the day, put all your change into a jar. See how simple it is to start saving?
Question your self-limiting thoughts. When you realize they’re unrealistic, untrue, and within your power to change, you’ll be able to break away.
6. Recognize how powerful your negative thoughts are. You create who you are by what you think about yourself
Why not turn that power into positive energy that drives you towards the things that you want in life? Trust me you can do this and it will change your life forever.
7. Learn from prior errors
Instead of using your past against you, think about the knowledge you’ve gained from each experience. Maybe an important relationship dissolved a few years ago. The loss of that relationship doesn’t mean you’ll never find another partner again.
Rather than getting bogged down with self-limiting thoughts, reflect on the shortcomings of your previous relationship. What part did you play? If you proactively learn from your past mistakes, you’ll make healthier choices in the future.
Remember this could be anything though. Things related to health, or career, or finances. Look at any negative situation as learning opportunity and say to yourself… “what can I learn from this situation?” and “What positive thing can I take from this negative situation?” You might be surprised what you find.
When you apply the above strategies to your life, you’ll see the possibilities that are
all around you. You can do anything you set your mind to. Extinguish those self-limiting beliefs right now so you can start embracing the good life that’s yours for the taking.