What holds you back in life? Limiting beliefs are one of the major things that prohibits people from achieving their goals. It has happened to me. Maybe it's happened to you. But what can you do about it?
For me personally, I wasn't able to overcome any limiting beliefs or things that held me back until I admitted to myself that I had a limiting belief or mindset. So the first thing I’d do is sit down and acknowledge what my limiting beliefs were. I would get out a pen and paper, and I'd start writing all the wild and crazy ideas that I believed were holding me back in my mind.
Basically, the first step is being honest with yourself, being real, being vulnerable, not thinking you're too cool for school, and sitting down and just writing it out: What holds me back?
Also jot down something you want to achieve, whether that's personal, like a relationship, or financial, whatever it is. And then what is it that you view about that, for example maybe if it's about success but you view too much success as wrong or that you should only do x, y, z to find it. I know that's a very common thing -- people want to achieve something yet they feel guilty for a better life. So what is it that you feel guilty about or that makes you feel bad?
Or maybe it’s not your own ideas; maybe it’s the way that some other person -- either when you grew up with your parents or now with a spouse or someone else -- would tell you something was negative or too aggressive. Write those things down. Put them all on paper. You don't need to share this with anybody.
Once you have those items, write down some ideas on how to reprogram that thinking. Say to yourself, okay, how can I change this? Or what can I do to overcome this limiting belief? Are there things that I can do? Are there actions that I can take?
Once you have ideas on how to rewrite your thoughts, try them on for size. Test them and revisit these limiting beliefs on a regular basis, rewriting them. We can self-sabotage ourselves with our inner voice. There's a great book out there called The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer that talks about the inner voice and how it self-sabotages us and our life and our success and makes us unhappy, because we speak very negatively, or most of us do, in our own heads. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night thinking and worrying about stuff? That's your inner voice. How you listen to it and how you change it can really help you overcome limiting beliefs that holds you back.
Here is an example of what I mean. An old limiting belief could be, I'll never be fit or I can't lose any weight. A new way to talk to yourself would be, I love working out or I enjoy eating healthy food or I hate McDonald's. Start just telling yourself the new script. This is your life, your script. And you don't need to write someone else's script -- your dad's script or your spouse's into your life. Your own script should be what you believe is going to help you achieve results.
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