Written by: Deilen Michelle Villegas, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
“Limiting beliefs” is a term that often gets tossed around– But what does it mean? Well, limiting beliefs are thoughts or a state of mind that you are convinced to be the absolute truth, and it prevents you from achieving tasks or goals in life. These beliefs are not always about yourself but can pertain to how you believe the world functions, ideas, or impact how you interact with others. When you learn to overcome these limiting beliefs, you open all the opportunities to reach your fullest potential.
You might ask yourself, how do I even get these limiting beliefs? From birth, individuals are programmed by the views and beliefs of those around them, society, and their personal life experiences. Unfortunately, these experiences will impact your overall view of how you believe the world works.
These experiences will form limitations in your mind. Causing you to believe this is just how life is supposed to be– or create fears surrounding certain situations or experiences, making you less likely to go for something outside of what you are comfortable with or currently know.
So how do you know if you have limiting beliefs?
You can often recognize or identify limiting beliefs based on the viewpoint surrounding experiences or subject matter. Certain mindsets and thoughts can highlight areas for you that have become restricted by these beliefs and the behaviors that come along with them, for example:
“I am bad at public speaking.” So, therefore you avoid it at all costs or avoid opportunities to express yourself out loud.
“I am not good enough to do that.” So you don’t apply for a position you may be qualified for because you doubt your abilities.
“I will never be successful.” So you might quit something too soon or not even try out of fear of rejection and judgment.
“I can’t do this until the time is right” So you will hold off on doing something waiting for the perfect moment, but life will continue to throw you curve balls, so you may always find an excuse to not do it.
How do we identify limiting beliefs?
To understand why you have your limiting beliefs, you must take the time to get to know where they stem from. Often, these limiting beliefs are formed during early childhood experiences and mold you to believe these thoughts about yourself or the world around you.
Perhaps as a child, whenever you tried to express yourself or share your concerns, the people in your life often dismissed you or told you that your opinion did not matter. As a result, it creates a sense of insecurity in yourself and convinces you that people do not want to hear what you have to say. In turn, this makes you uncomfortable and afraid to express yourself as an adult. (This can also lead to preventing you from being able to set healthy boundaries and not share when something is being done that you might not agree with.)
Another example could be whenever you tried something new, it was heavily criticized and never good enough for those who you wanted to share with. When you tried, these individuals harshly judged you and made you feel your efforts weren’t worth acknowledging, because they may not have been up to their expectations. These experiences would cause someone to feel worthless and like they could never measure up to the expectations or standards of others. As a result, you are less likely to try something new out of fear of rejection. This could lead to a limiting belief that if you were not excellent at something on the first try, it wouldn’t be worth trying at all.
How can we overcome these limiting beliefs?
You can work on overcoming these limiting beliefs by practicing expressing yourselves more openly and freely. Practicing positive affirmations and working on reprogramming your mindset and behaviors with positive reinforcement helps build a positive perception of yourself, improves self-confidence, and helps gain a better understanding of the world around you.
Reprogramming your mind to know just because you may not be excellent at something right now does not mean you won’t be in the future. While also learning to accept that it is okay not to be perfect at everything as long as you know you are trying your best and learning is a normal part of the process. When gaining a new skill or attempting a new task, there will always be room for improvement (it is normal not to know everything right away), and everyone experiences a sense of nervousness when they are starting something new, but it shouldn’t deter you from ever trying at all. Overcoming this fear of failure and rejection will help individuals reach for bigger goals and try something out of their comfort zone because they are not being held back by fear or the expectation of perfection.
Take the time to assess how accurate these limiting beliefs are about you. Are you not good at something, or is it that you were never allowed to do it? Being able to differentiate how much of a statement is true or false about you, can help begin to reprogram the mindset to believe you are capable of achieving and doing anything you set your mind to as long as you apply yourself.
Learning to highlight your strengths will also help build confidence. Focusing on your strengths can help put into perspective all of your good qualities and what you have to offer, encouraging you to believe in your ability to accomplish your goals. No matter what challenges come your way, if you are determined and willing, you can still accomplish everything you set out to do. Life will often throw unexpected curve balls, but that is why we must be “Stubborn about our goals, but flexible about the approach.” A successful person is aware that changes can happen at any time, which is why it is important to be able to be adaptable and able to pivot when necessary but always remain focused on the end goal.
Learning to look at moments of rejection in the future as an opportunity for growth and improvement rather than a permanent failure can change your perspective and help you move forward. This is essential in any situation. Failure or rejection does not have to be the end of something, it simply means, being open and willing to take notes and make necessary adjustments to improve for the next opportunity.
In many situations, people often dismiss how their approach plays an important part in why they could have been rejected for an opportunity. You could be entirely qualified but might self-sabotage opportunities because you come into a situation with a failed mindset already, rather than coming in with confidence. Going into a situation with a negative mindset could impact your ability to highlight your strengths and skills and give off body language that indicates you are unsure of your abilities. (Making it so you fail to show exactly why you know you belong in the space you are in.)
While you might think that mindset does not impact how people view you, it does. If you walk into a room with confidence, your energy projects and people will be more inclined to trust someone who knows what they bring to the table than someone unsure of themselves.
Due to societal expectations and lifestyle requirements, we are all victims of limiting beliefs to some extent. It is up to us as individuals, to challenge and question everything we have learned throughout our lives. To do our research and have our own experiences outside of what we were always told, to determine if something is true or not. Part of becoming a fully functional adult is being able to explore and find out exactly who you are, and what are your morals and core values. As you experience life and meet people, you might find that some of the things you were told to believe growing up could be challenged based on the personal experiences you had. These personal experiences can help you separate how much of it is true about who you are as a person, and who you were told to be based on the expectations and beliefs of others.
For more information on How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs click the links below:
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/limiting-beliefs-guide/overcoming-limiting-beliefs/
https://www.groupsixty.com/ideas-blog/2021/1/27/the-enemy-within-how-to-overcome-self-limiting -beliefs
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Deilen Michelle Villegas, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Deilen Michelle is an Entrepreneur, Holistic Health Practitioner, Holistic Life Coach, and Spiritual Guide. She effectively works with clients using her Mind-Body-Spirit healing modality bringing awareness and healing to the whole self. She is a Recovered Trauma Survivor, and knows firsthand the effect life experiences can have on your Mind, Body and Spirit. Over the course of the last 11 years, she has not only worked on her own well-being but has also become educated in the Mind-Body-Spirit connection in order to help others who might need it. In doing so, she's created her own Modality named The Shamanic Goddess: Holistic Enlightening Method.
