BELIEFS are what make the world go round, at least for us as human beings. They determine what we will and won’t do, they determine what we pay attention to or ignore.
They are thoughts we invest a sense of ourselves into and hold with some certainty that they are true.
Beliefs are our path to freedom or the prison that keeps us trapped and hold us back from following our dreams.
Beliefs are picked up throughout our journey of life, from our parents, teachers, peers, friends and from wider society through the media, social media and authority figures.
Beliefs should be scrutinised and seriously questioned, because they are often based on nothing more than assumptions, inferences and the testimony of other people, rather than being derived from facts and truths and being evidence based.
Consider self-limiting beliefs like…
- I’m not good enough
- I’m not skilled enough
- I don’t have the talent
- I don’t have the experience
- I don’t have the time
- I don’t have the money
- I don’t have the resources
- I’ll forget my lines
Beliefs about what others think or will think about you
- If it doesn’t work out…
- They’ll know I’m a fraud
- They’ll see me as a failure
- I’ll make a fool of myself
- I’ll embarrass myself
- They’ll be disappointed in me
- They’ll laugh at me
- They want me to fail
- They’re just wanting me to fail
- They’ll think I’m fat
Beliefs about past performance
- I’ll mess up, I always do
- I failed last time, I’ll fail again
- I’ve never been able to do it before
Seriously, stop buying into such beliefs, they disempower you, they turn you off even trying things. If you want to believe anything believe….
- Self limiting beliefs are not going to put me in the best frame of mind to succeed
- The opinion of other people isn’t important, it’s my life and only my opinion really matters; I must start being kind to myself
- The past doesn’t dictate my future. Learn from my failures and improve going forwards
- You can do whatever you put your mind to with enough effort, dedication and determination
- You can learn what you can, and draft in help to fill the gaps
- There is always a way, you just have to find it
- You never fail at anything unless you give up trying
- Getting results is a matter of acquiring the right knowledge, improving motivation and being productive
Take a long, hard look at your beliefs, write them down on a piece of paper. Question their validity, even ask someone you respect and trust to give their opinion of them. Replace the limiting beliefs, you wrongly, hold with more empowering beliefs that will give you the best frame of mind to succeed. If you’re going to make shit up, make it empowering.