Self-limiting beliefs are assumptions and perceptions you create about yourself. They are inner statements that you have emotional investment in and are powerful enough to shape your reality. A certain belief is considered to be "self-limiting" when it has the ability to hold you back from achieving what you are truly capable of.
These beliefs can be formed from a very early age in childhood. Your brain has the incredible ability to detect patterns and create associations. Humans are constantly processing streams of information about the world around us and developing certain beliefs. The general purpose of forming these beliefs is to help you understand the world, keep you safe, and survive.
When you are young, many beliefs are shaped by your surrounding environment, personal experiences, and the dominant figures in your life (e.g. your parents). As you grow older, you begin to establish more complex beliefs that come from a wider range of sources, such as books, movies, advertisements, and your peers. Depending on the environment you've grown up in and who you choose to surround yourself with, some of your beliefs begin to become self-limiting through no fault of your own. These beliefs will begin to dictate the way you behave.
How limiting beliefs are holding you back
Most often, you will be completely unaware of your limiting beliefs and how they are impacting you. Some people believe that they are underserving, worthless, incompetent, or a failure - these are some prime examples of beliefs that are self-limiting.
Negative self-talk can have a powerful impact on your thought process. Many people will often engage in a number of cognitive behaviours and thinking patterns, such as catastrophising, mental filtering, labelling, personalising, black and white thinking, and emotional reasoning, which is all due to your internal dialogue.
These negative thinking patterns will eventually affect your behaviour. For example, if you believe you are powerless in a situation, then you will avoid standing up for yourself. Or, if you believe you are incompetent, you will avoid going for a particular job or promotion. You will often doubt yourself and lack confidence in your ability to do or be a certain something.
What you really want to avoid doing is turning these limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling prophecies. A 'self-fulfilling prophecy' is a socio-psychological phenomenon referring to one's expectations about a future event which manifests and comes true, eventually affirming the belief. For example, if you wake up and tell yourself "today is going to be a terrible day", you may unconsciously begin to amplify all of the negative events of that day via your attitude and your prediction will become fulfilled. This phenomenon has been researched for decades and there are hundreds of online sources available if you wish to understand more.
The truth about these beliefs
If there is one thing I'd like anyone to take away from this blog post, it's that your beliefs create your reality. If you are familiar with neuroscience, you might already know that the physical structure of the brain actually changes as a result of your thoughts - this is known as 'neuroplasticity'.
Interestingly enough, the original thought does not have to have any truth behind it for this to happen. As a human, your brain subconsciously likes to be right. Therefore, when a new idea or thought enters the brain, it will seek to reinforce any incoming data to support the truth of this thought. Because the brain is constantly bombarded with information, it automatically selects any sensory input that supports your pre-existing views of the world and will disregard the rest.
The good news is that any beliefs you may have about yourself have most likely been inherited from external sources and past experiences, but you have the power to become aware of any self-limiting beliefs and change them. Now you know that you total control, it's time to take action!
How to overcome self-limiting beliefs and change your behaviour
1. Identify your self-limiting beliefs and the behaviours they have resulted in
Start by imagining things you want to do, but perhaps there are cognitive blocks holding you back. While there might be other hurdles in the way, consider any that might be due to limiting beliefs about yourself. Also consider the detrimental impact these beliefs have had on your behaviour. In work? In relationships? In your health? In reaching your goals?
2. Dig a little deeper and try to recall when you first started experiencing these beliefs
Reflect on the actual sources of these beliefs. By looking at the root causes and questioning them, you will notice the evidence you have previously used to justify these beliefs might actually be flawed. From there, you can begin to crack the foundations of your limiting beliefs and alter them.
3. Reflect on your beliefs and take note of when the belief had proven to be false
An important next step to debunk any self-limiting beliefs is to reflect upon a time where a particular belief was shown to be incorrect. Be re-evaluating the "evidence" you can perhaps realise that your judgement has been unfair and there is no underlying truth to support it.
4. Formulate new beliefs
To break the habit of reinforcing your old beliefs, you need to make new ones! For each of the limiting beliefs you have identified, turn it around and formulate a new belief that is positive and perhaps supports the goal you want to reach. For example, change "I'm not smart enough" to "I can learn anything if I put my mind to it".
5. Retrain your brain and thought processes
As mentioned above, your brain has the ability to rewire thought processes. In order to do this successfully, you need to feed your brain a new thinking pattern. There are a number of ways to do this. Firstly, you can try using affirmations (writing down or speaking out loud your new beliefs repeatedly every day). You could use a physical object to remind yourself of your new way of thinking. You can rewire your brain by performing a habit or ritual, so that you are putting into practice your new belief step-by-step each day. Whatever works best for you!
We all experience negative self-talk and limiting beliefs. Although I still have many of my own to work through, a huge part of my self development journey has been trying to restructure the beliefs I hold about myself. Some people might find it more difficult than others, but this is why it is so important to surround yourself with people who empower you to become the best version of yourself. And remember, your beliefs have the power to create your reality!
Until next time;
peace and love,
Tina
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