“If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?” -William Somerset Maugham
Do you know that the average person makes about 35,000 decisions a day? If this sounds incredible, think about the following…
Right now you are making the decision to continue reading this article or to do something else. In other words, every moment of your life you make individual choices and the sum total of those choices, as well as their consequences, is what we call OUR REALITY. To make this even more interesting, neuroscientists say that more than 95 percent of our decisions are made completely unconsciously.
Now the next question arises, based on what are you deciding which next option to choose or what is most influencing the decisions you make. This is where we come to our beliefs, that is, the internal programs that govern the vast majority of our daily choices and decisions.
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Our beliefs are like software that allows us to see only content compatible with that software on our screen. They create our expectations and manage our reactions. We can have many hopes, aspirations, and goals, but the real steps we need to achieve them can only be taken regularly when we rid ourselves, at least partially, of precisely those limiting beliefs that don’t support the direction we want to go. .
Although we all have many different limiting beliefs, the good news is that most of them are completely irrelevant and there is no need to deal with them at all. The beliefs that make sense are precisely those that are automatically activated in us when we begin to take practical steps on an issue that is currently something important to us, and we feel that our life or business is stagnant until we take a concrete step on the issue.
How to get rid of such limiting beliefs?
To begin with, it is important to be specific and focused on one area of life during a specific period. Or, even better, just a goal that you see as a priority.
Think of a current goal of your own that is extremely important to you and will not be further delayed, while at the same time feeling like you are going around too many circles and not taking all the practical steps necessary given the importance of such a goal.
So ask yourself the following question:
“What should someone deep down believe that would, as a result, behave the way I behave in relation to my target?”
Then, without thinking too much, start writing down the thoughts that come to the surface of your awareness. They will usually accurately represent the beliefs that most constrain your commitment on the path to achieving your goal. Once such limiting beliefs “pass” from your unconscious mind to your conscious mind, they will no longer represent the “mechanism” that dominates your decisions, but only become a choice to think about and crucially re-examine.
Once such limiting beliefs “pass” from your unconscious mind to your conscious mind, they will no longer represent the “mechanism” that dominates your decisions, but only become a choice to think about and crucially re-examine.
Take 20 minutes a week for the process and repeat it until you feel like old habits and behaviors are no longer having a big impact on your new decisions.
One more thing…
Clients often ask me if it is necessary to have clearly defined objectives, that is, if it is possible to work on eliminating limiting beliefs without clear objectives. My answer is that it is possible, but you will need to invest 10 times more time and energy to achieve the same effect.
Because?
Because all of your attention will be scattered in different directions and because of the lack of clarity of the direction in which you want to go, it will be difficult for you to fully define what your limiting beliefs are.
No belief by itself is limiting. It becomes limiting only when we feel that it prevents us from reaching the goal that really matters to us and that we want to achieve.