Want to know how to overcome limiting beliefs? Maybe you are aware of your limiting beliefs and are ready to get over them. Or maybe someone has picked up on one of your limiting beliefs and told you that they are holding you back. Either way, I’m here to help you. Keep on reading to find out how to overcome limiting beliefs.
What is a limiting belief?
A limiting belief is a thought or opinion that you hold which has a negative impact on your life. Usually, a limiting belief will be a thought or opinion about yourself and what you can and can’t do.
Now that you are clear on what a limiting belief is it is time to show you how to overcome your limiting beliefs.
HOW TO OVERCOME LIMITING BELIEFS
Step 1 – Identify your limiting beliefs
In order to overcome your limiting beliefs, you’ll first need to identify your limiting beliefs. This is often easier said than done. Start by writing out all of your beliefs that you have in relation to yourself. To get you started think about beliefs you have based on your age, race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, religion, current location, personality, skills, appearance etc.
Step 2 – Acknowledge it is a belief rather than a fact
One of the reasons why limiting beliefs are so powerful is because we forget they are a belief and treat them as a fact. I want to go through your list from Step 1 and one by one you should question whether what you have written is a fact or an opinion. Be tough with your questioning. Very often once we have a belief our brain will find examples to reinforce that belief. Even if you have some examples to reinforce a belief you want to ensure that you can’t also find examples for the counterargument.
For example, maybe your limiting belief is “I can’t save money”. You might be able to find examples that reinforce this statement. You never have money left at the end of the month and you have very little in your savings. However, if you look for an example that support “I am a saver” you might be able to find an example of a time when you did save up because you want to go on holiday.
Hopefully, this example shows how by flipping the belief you can look for examples that reinforce the opposite and therefore prove that the belief is an opinion rather than an actual fact.
Step 3 – Create a new empowering belief
Once you’ve identified all of your limiting beliefs it is time to create new empowering beliefs instead. For each limiting belief think about what you would say that would help empower you. For example, if we continue with looking at beliefs around money and the fact that historically you’ve said “I can’t save money”. Now you want to create a belief that you are saver. You might decide that instead of saying “I can’t save money” you are now going to tell yourself “I am a great saver” or “I am great at saving when I have a clear purpose” or “I have great money management skills. I can spend and save as is appropriate for my current needs”.
Can you see how in all three of those examples the emphasis is on reinforcing that you can save, but there are different nuances? This is important. If you have had a limiting belief for a long time it can be hard to flip to the reverse and belief it. If you’ve told yourself for years “I can’t save money” and then all of a sudden start saying “I am a great saver” you might feel fake. If that is you then play around with writing an empowering belief that you can believe (if even a bit). Then over time as you practice saying the belief more and more you’ll slowly start to believe it more and become more comfortable saying it.
Step 4 – Keep practising your empowering belief until you believe it to be a fact
When you first create a new empowering belief it is likely to just feel like a statement. Even if you’ve done the work to try and create an empowering belief that you believe at least on some level the likelihood is in the beginning you won’t totally believe and embody it. That is completely natural because you’ve had the limiting belief for so long and this new belief directly challenges that belief.
In order to really get over your limiting beliefs, you’ll have to wholeheartedly embody and own your new empowering beliefs.
To do this there are a number of techniques you can try.
- Create an affirmation around your new empowering belief that you practice regularly
- Whenever you catch yourself saying the old belief automatically remind yourself that is a belief you’ve had for years, but it is a belief, not a fact and repeat your affirmation.
New to the world of affirmations. Click here to learn about three different ways you can practice them.
That’s it! You now know how to overcome limiting beliefs.
You won’t overcome your limiting beliefs overnight, but it is worth putting in the work because overcoming your limiting beliefs can truly change your life forever.
In the comments, I would love to know one of the empowering beliefs.
