Chi For Yourself

It seems as though you’re going through life with the emergency brake on. Your efforts are cancelled out by limits of one sort or another.

Your beliefs could be the problem, and GenuLines has a closer look at how this is happening.

Are Your Self Limiting Beliefs Bringing You Down?

You’re not moving forward in life, why is that? The answer could be self-limiting beliefs.

Self-limiting beliefs relate to our abilities, skills, looks, motivation, and other personality traits.

Self-limiting beliefs are often self-identified. This means that they are beliefs that focus on oneself rather than the world in general.

But self-limiting beliefs may also be about other people or the world.

What Are Self-Limiting Beliefs?
Self-limiting beliefs include: I do/don’t I am/am not:

These beliefs define us by things we are or are not. “I am an accountant.”

These types of self-limiting beliefs may also connect to things you tell yourself you do or don’t deserve.

“I don’t deserve a raise because I’m a bad accountant.” Self-limiting beliefs come from the self-image.

Typical I can’t self-limiting beliefs are statements that begin with I can’t. “I can’t do this because… I can’t learn that because…”

Value Beliefs
Value beliefs usually come from norms laws cultural restraints and other conditions.

But, not all these are mandatory, and some are limiting. “I must clean my house every day until the floor shines.”

This is a very limiting value belief about cleanliness.

Others will/are: these are beliefs based on how other people perceive us or what they will do based on our actions. These are often guesses about other people’s behavior, and they are often wrong.

These self-limiting beliefs are wrong. We view people through our own mind rather than through their perception.

We don’t have accurate ideas of how other people think because we have not lived their experiences.

How Do Self Limiting Beliefs Affect Your Life?
We’ll refer to Psychology Today. We’re told that limiting decisions in our lives prevents us from becoming who we wish to become.

Self-limiting thoughts do this by affecting our decisions.

There have been several studies in this area over the years. They looked at what we perceive, our emotional state, and how we perform.

All showed ties to our self-belief system. Self-limiting beliefs turn into self-limiting actions.

Often people with self-limiting beliefs will not even attempt to test that limit. For example, people who think that they are not attractive will never attempt to ask for a date.

If you think you’re too old to get a new jobs you won’t try to find a more satisfying one.

You can see how self-limiting beliefs can bring you down without you even knowing. Self-limiting beliefs are controlling your decisions every day.

4-Steps To Eliminating Self Limiting Beliefs
The lucky thing about thoughts is that you are in complete control of them. Anytime you have a thought, whether it’s positive or negative, you can change it.

Psychology Today has a four-step process to end self-limiting beliefs. Let’s take a look:

1. Write the limiting belief down.
Find out how strong each belief is and what emotions they make you feel.

2. Acknowledge that they are beliefs and not truths.
Many people struggle with this step, but the reality is a belief and not a fact. Many self-limiting beliefs are limitations based on fictional ideas we have about ourselves.

When you realize that these are not real limits, you free yourself to act against them.

3. Try on a different belief.
This may take some practice, but over time you’ll be able to change your belief system. An example from Psychology Today was changing a self-limiting belief about handling money.

Instead of saying, “I am not good with money and that is why I have financial difficulties.” You would change that belief to “I am experienced with money because of my past. ”

“I’ve learned how to handle my finances.” These simple tweaks in your internal dialogue can help you change your actions.

4. Take different action.
The final step is to take action on your new belief as if it were true. If you’re trying on the belief that you are a successful artist, you may enter your first art show.

Scary? Sure.

But it’s also a big step in overcoming negative and self-limiting beliefs.

JohnK 8-28-2023
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.