Conquering Limiting Beliefs

“I’m gonna make a complete ass out of myself if I do that!?”

Ever think that one to yourself? Everybody has beliefs and sometimes beliefs hold us back from doing something really cool or even life changing. I had a little 'situation' last week which made me say that exact thing to myself. I had to step back and coach myself which inspired me to write this month’s blog about the dreaded 'limiting beliefs' thought process and how to stomp it out! So what is a belief? A belief is a thought or perspective that YOU have absolute certainty about and they can be either positive or negative. Most of our beliefs have come from things that we have heard or saw from our parents, family, and yes even society. Beliefs control our behavior and whatever we are feeling or doing is based on some type of belief. Super scary thing is it happens consciously or unconsciously at times. The longer you have a certain belief, that belief becomes a story with lots of twists and turns along the way. Some common limiting beliefs or ‘stories’ that we keep telling ourselves:

I am not good enough
I am too fat, too old, too set in my ways to change
This situation is helpless
I am a failure

These stories can certainly take on a life of their own. It's like watching a bad movie over and over. How many times do you watch it? So why would you continue to torture yourself each day by watching the same bad movie in your own life? Yes, it gets deeper! Think about this – if you are certain that you cannot succeed in something then you are going to look for all of the reasons why you should not start because who wants to make an 'ass' of themselves. (Note to self-A little profanity makes me feel great! Cool belief!) So where do we go from here? 1. Make a list and identify the limiting beliefs that have been holding you back. 2. Take the time to honestly question these beliefs and the experiences that you have associated to them. 3. Some good questions to ask yourself regarding beliefs are:

Is this true?
Can you absolutely know it's true?
How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
Who would you be without the thought? "The Work of Byron Katie"

4. Now it is time to replace the negative beliefs them with empowering beliefs. The power is within us to change! Are you going to let fear control you or are you going to kick fear in the ass? The choice is yours….Check out this video about FEAR – one of my favorites:

M