1. Definition
Limiting beliefs are anything that we believe about ourselves that negatively impacts our ability to achieve our personal, academic or professional potential. An insidious form of psychological harm, limiting beliefs are enough to set someone down a different path in life than the one they would have gone down had their belief system been more positive.
2. Early Formation
Of all the impediments to our personal growth and transformation, limiting beliefs are among the most unfair because they often form when we are too young to realise or do anything about them. That’s not to say that the adult world we rely upon for our nature and nurture deliberately causes us to believe in this way, even if this is sadly true for some, but an accepted psychological truth is that the beliefs we form about ourselves and the world around us are primarily shaped by the age of seven.
3. Not our fate
But a powerful idea exists, immortalised in timeless stories of hope and triumph: limiting beliefs do not represent our fate. Day in, and day out, people are proving, frequently heroically, that they can shed their limiting beliefs and travel down a life path of their choosing.
4. A powerful idea
So, how do they achieve this? How do they detach themselves from a belief system imposed on them by an ignorant or uncaring adult world? Due to a catalyst such as a story or supportive relationship, an idea gets inserted into the limiting belief that, like a chemical reaction, fatally alters and undermines it. The idea? Limiting beliefs don’t represent the truth.
5. A path to positive thinking
Once possessed of this revelation, the liberated can embark on a quest to discover what is true, namely that they are someone of worth and potential; they question, disprove, overcome and, critically, return their limiting beliefs to their source: the adult world they grew up in.
So, if you know or suspect that limiting beliefs are undermining your ability to realise your personal, academic or professional transformation, here are some of the ways you can set off down a path established by countless heroes before you:
- Gravitate towards and surround yourself with people who accept you for who you are.
- Introduce and immerse yourself in stories of hope and triumph over adversity.
- Read self-help books.
- Research psychological techniques and strategies.
- Take courses that support all aspects of your personal, academic or professional development.
- Access coaching and therapy.
- Change how you talk to yourself.
What should you do next?
If limiting beliefs are holding you back personally or professionally, why not consider working with us here at Conversations With Impact? Using the six stages of our IMPACT Model, you can learn to live life with thoughts that support rather than hinder you. Please follow the links below to take some next steps: