In the pursuit of personal and professional growth, the shackles of limiting beliefs often stand as barriers, hindering progress and stifling potential. This blog delves into the insidious ways in which these beliefs can thwart your aspirations, even hamper leadership development, and what you can do about it.

UNDERSTANDING LIMITING BELIEFS:

Limiting beliefs are deeply ingrained convictions that shape our perception of ourselves and the world around us. These beliefs, often formed early in life, can act as self-imposed constraints that influence decisions, actions, and responses to challenges. For a large portion of people, they are undistinguished and unconscious, believed to be the way they and reality actually are. Everyone believes their BELIEFS are true and that is the way life is. However, not many people do the work to analyse them. Identifying and dismantling these beliefs is a crucial step in the journey towards unlocking one's true potential. Beliefs are:
Static - can get outdated very quickly
  • Misleading - appear to be true
  • Opinions - can be inaccurate
  • Prejudice - unfairly bias our perception
  • Superstition - unrelated beliefs that can appear to be connected
  • Rigid - stubborn or dogmatically positioned
  • Inhibit learning - hard to integrate new information

IDENTIFYING THE CULPRITS USING GRAILS IN THE LIFE DOMAINS

Why am I harping on about identifying your beliefs? Well because they stop you in life. They stop you taking action, stepping up, asking that question, being a leader, doing what needs to be done, even if it is not your job, they keep you playing the victim. The question is, do you want an extraordinary life and do you want to excel in your career? If so then do the work to identify all of your limiting beliefs. I have talked about the GRAILS in other blogs, and you can use that as a framework to help identify your limiting beliefs, as a reminder they are:
  1. The Gremlin, also known as your Inner Critic
  2. Rigid Rules you have in life
  3. Assumptions you make
  4. Interpretations you make about things that happen, was said
  5. Limiting Beliefs about yourself and others
  6. Stories you make up in your head
In the previous blog, I distinguished the different life domains that you can rate and think about whether you are satisfied or not with that domain. Domains such as business, career, personal growth, family, etc. So using the GRAILS as a framework and the life domains to look into satisfaction, identify what limiting beliefs you have going on in that domain that you are not satisfied with. Take the time to write them down. Do that limiting belief audit, you will be surprised at the results. Example in the areas of finance, do you have limiting beliefs like "I will never be able to achieve wealth,", "money causes trouble," etc. Get CONSCIOUS of these as when you are conscious of something, you now have a choice, whereas when you are unconscious there is NO choice.


How Limiting Beliefs Stop You:

Limiting beliefs breed a paralyzing fear of failure, preventing you from taking risks or pursuing ambitious goals. They literally stop you from taking action on those things, they are often the justification you find for NOT doing the things or taking the actions, towards what you actually want.
  1. You will Self-Sabotage:
    • Believing you are undeserving of success can lead to behaviors that undermine your efforts, perpetuating a cycle of self-sabotage.
  2. It can create a Lack of Confidence:
    • Inner critic-driven beliefs erode self-confidence, making it challenging to assert yourself, make decisions, or take on leadership roles.
  3. Increases Resistance to Change:
    • Fixed mindset beliefs hinder adaptability, causing resistance to change and innovation within your personal and professional life.
  4. Stagnation:
    • Limiting beliefs create a comfort zone, hindering personal and professional growth, and preventing you from realizing your full potential.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs:

There is something called the red car theory. SO, if I was to ask you how many red cars you saw on the way to the office, or somewhere else today, you would most likely not know. You were not aware to look for them, or even saw the opportunity. However, if I was to ask you look out and count the red cars on the way to work today and I will give you$20/car, then you would actually start to look out for them, would you not? So seeing the opportunities (or blockers) in life, is a matter of two things. Firstly, awareness and secondly opportunity. This is how your limiting beliefs and opportunities that come to you work. If you are not aware of your limiting beliefs, in order to clear them and make new decisions, then you cannot look for new evidence for that new decision, so no new opportunities come your way.

  1. Awareness and Identification
    • Recognize when limiting beliefs arise and understand their origins.
    • Acknowledge their existence without judgment.
  2. Challenge and Reframe
    • Question the validity of limiting beliefs.
    • Reframe them into empowering and growth-oriented perspectives.
  3. Adopt a New Belief
    • Identify a belief that you find empowering
    • Take action on it and then make an effort to LOOK for evidence supporting that new belief
  4. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
    • Embrace challenges as opportunities for learning and development.
    • Foster a belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.
  5. Seek Support
    • Engage with mentors, coaches, or a supportive network to challenge and navigate limiting beliefs.
  6. Take Incremental Actions
    • As soon as new opportunities come your way based on these new empowering beliefs, then jump on them.
    • Break down larger goals into smaller, manageable steps.
    • Celebrate each achievement to build confidence and counteract limiting beliefs.
  7. Stop to Celebrate Results
    • Make sure you are stopping to investigate the results and celebrate them
    • Make this a game, play with this, get out there and have some fun with looking for new evidence based on new empowering beliefs and see what you get.

Conclusion: Liberating Yourself from Self-Limitation

Limiting beliefs are not immutable truths but rather narratives that can be rewritten by YOU, through becoming conscious. By understanding their origins, challenging their validity, and cultivating a growth mindset, you embark on a transformative journey toward self-liberation. As a leadership coach, I encourage you to confront and conquer your limiting beliefs, for in doing so, you unlock the door to your true potential and pave the way for unparalleled success in both your personal and professional endeavors. Remember, the only limits that truly exist are the ones you place upon yourself. Break free and soar.

Reach out to me directly if you want some coaching on this for you, your life, career, business or family. I am a licensed coach with 20+ years experience in leadership, in New York, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, London & Sydney.

Visit Transformative Visions Website to purchase and book coaching: [www.transformativevisions.com


 
 
 

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