Limiting Beliefs: What They Are And How To Deal With Them

“If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you.”

―Louise Hay

Beliefs are our perceptions of the world and our society, how to assume that things work or at least, how they ought to. And these beliefs are influenced by our environment; our Limiting beliefs are those thoughts or ideas of discouragement that pop up in your mind anytime you want to do something different from the norm. Examples of deviations from the norm could be quitting your job to start a business, applying for a raise or a promotion, asking your crush for a date, facing a crowd, going on stage and every other thing that requires leaving your comfort zone.

How do you identify self-limiting beliefs?
Sometimes, people mistake being cautious as scepticism or pessimism. However, it is different. Being cautious is all about making sure that whatever you want to do works, against all odds, while self-limiting beliefs tend to shift towards the impossibility of whatever task you want to do. For example, if you want to start a business, the cautionary thoughts will be targeted at going through everything to ensure no errors could lead to failure. However, you will notice that when the thoughts have deviated from “hope, everything is accurate and accounted for,” the self-limiting thoughts will be of, “what if after everything, it still fails?” or “what if I give up as I always do?” other times, it will come in the form of; “other people have ventured into this, and they failed. How would I be any different?”

How to deal with self-limiting beliefs

Identifying and enjoying even the smallest victories: If you can identify the silver lining in anything you do, even those that end up not yielding the expected results, you will realize that often, the failure you thought you had isn’t as massive as you perceived it to be. You can start by identifying the little victories in anything you venture into and look at the failure as one of the possible outcomes you didn’t intend to have. It helps to boost your self-confidence and gradually eliminates self-limiting beliefs.

Changing your comfort zones: Sometimes, out of too much modesty or past experiences, people tend to think so low of themselves and, in that process, bury the possibility of achieving anything great. Thoughts like “I’ve never been able to do it, so I won’t be able to do it.” or “I was born obese, and so there is no chance of getting the fit body I dream of.” They are all lies our bodies use to stay in their comfort zone. What you should do is imagine what it would have been like if your comfort zone was shifted to accept only the successful version of you. It would be great, and that is towards where you should work.
Nobody was born with high self-esteem or confidence. It is a trait that people develop, through a gradual process, given enough effort and determination that you do not like the current version of yourself, which of course, wallows in self-limiting beliefs.

A parting mantra for you is, “Change your thinking, change your ways.”