441 – Realising Your Limiting Self Beliefs

You can’t change what you can’t see.

The first of the 20 steps to overcoming your limiting beliefs is to become aware of what’s holding you back.

For some, this simple act of honesty can be the hardest thing to do. It’s quite a hit to the ego, and your limiting self beliefs can be so ugly you can’t even bear to admit them.

But you have to admit them. It’s the only way you can stop them from ruling your life anymore. I talk more about this in podcast episode 441 of The 7 Minute Mentor.

How I Got Honest About Feeling Trapped In A Good Thing

When I was young, I thought I had it all figured out. I had built my own agency, I was doing work nationally and internationally with great companies. I was doing well. But deep down in my gut, I knew I didn’t have what I really needed.

I was an angry person. I made some personal life choices that didn’t pan out well. I was trapped, firstly by personal circumstances I’d found myself in, and secondly because I’d built a business that didn’t fulfil me.

When I realised I was bored of my agency, Hacksaw, and needed to do something else, I began to realise how angry my lack of fulfilment had made me. I had been pushing it down, and being honest about how I felt brought it up to a conscious level.

Although a big part of me was angry at what I’d created around me, another part was badly scared of moving away from it. I was riddled with limiting self beliefs.

I was not only in a lifestyle prison of my own design. I was also in an emotional and mental prison.

I have a long list of things I could have done better on or nipped in the bud earlier. Why didn’t I? For one reason only – my limiting self beliefs.

Step Back & Look At Yourself From A Distance

I thought we were doing alright at my agency, and we were… on paper. We were having fun and making money. But it wasn’t enough. I felt limited. I was bored.

Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you’re bored of what you’re doing but you feel guilty for wanting to drop it all just because of that. Maybe you think, “Buck up, snowflake, this is what the real world is like.”

Let me ask you this… You only get one life. Why does it make sense to settle for a boring one?

Why does it make sense to settle for limitation?

Your boredom is a symptom. We have to find the underlying cause and fix it.

Look at your beliefs about yourself that hold you back. It’s not easy, they’ll not be pretty, but it’s the only way to change. You have to stare into the mirror and let all your insecurities stare back at you. Accept they exist. Look at why you believe them. Consider why they are effective on you.

Watch them as if from a distance. If you’ve read Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now, you’ll know about the egoic mind, and how it’s not really where your “awareness” comes from. You can look at your own thoughts and even beliefs from a distance, like they’re floating in front of your eyes. They don’t define you.

Get curious. Watch your mind like David Attenborough watching a troop of chimps.

Start Finding The Right Questions

We do not have all the answers.

We don’t even have all the questions! We truly don’t know what we don’t know.

Are you serious about overcoming you’re limiting self-beliefs? Then you’ll need to find the right questions. Rather than asking, “Why am I doing this?” or, “Why am I not doing that?” go deeper.

Ask yourself, “What is the belief that’s driving this action? What’s the thought process that’s blocking me?”

Underneath your thoughts are your perceptions. Under those are your beliefs. Shaping your beliefs are your values. Affecting all of that is your upbringing, your later experiences, and your habits of thought.

Ask yourself how each of those things is affecting your self-image, and when you ask, be willing to hear the answer no matter how difficult it might be.

If you want help with solving your business problems then come along and join me at my free coaching sessions that I run every single Friday live on Facebook – 4pm UK, 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific. Together we can define, challenge and conquer your biggest problem.

Reserve your seat on the next free coaching session, now.

Don’t forget, the more you expect from yourself, the more you WILL excel!

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