Beliefs, Are They All True?
“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs” – James Allen
Some beliefs are based on facts and some are based on fiction.
Can you tell the difference?
You see, the problem arises when we believe all our thoughts as facts of life. We run into trouble when we are so sure of the certainty of our beliefs being true that we make life altering decisions based on buying into these inaccurate beliefs.
This is not self-empowerment!
The other problem is that more times than not we are making the wrong choices because we are being held hostage by wrong and limiting beliefs. This makes achieving personal success almost impossible.
These limiting beliefs about yourself; your circumstances and others, stop you from fully living a life full of power, purpose and passion. False beliefs hold you back from becoming more successful, stop you from leaving unhappy relationships, and create lack of confidence. They make you your own worst critic and you can even end up defining who you become by these beliefs.
Let me give you an example of limiting beliefs that can cause you to walk down the wrong path. Sean is smart, intelligent and organized. He has achieved some level of personal successful, but he’s tired of working for someone and he wants to start his own business. But he never takes the action to start one.
When asked why, his answer is: (by the way the limiting belief’s always comes out when asking the questions) What if I fail? I’m really not smart enough plus I’m getting too old to go out on my own.
Okay, so in this scenario, what are the limiting beliefs? What if I fail? What’s holding him back here is fear and by not taking action he has already failed. What if he succeeds? Why believe the worst case scenario?
Next, I’m not smart enough. Is that fact or fiction, true or false? The truth is he is smart enough. But when you choose to believe you aren’t smart enough you don’t take action. Also, how do think this type of self-talk makes a person feel? Not too good right?
Ad then there’s the infamous I’m getting too old. Really, what is too old? 40-50-60-70-80? Who’s to say what too old is?
I can keep coming up with examples and I think you get the point right?
So here is what you need to know. How do you identify your limiting beliefs? And how do you deal with them once you have them around their scrawny little necks.
First, you simply listen to yourself talk. How do you describe yourself and your life? Listen to the words you use. Then once you’ve identified the pesky little culprits that are putting a big damper on your journey through life you have to ask yourself these questions about these beliefs:
- Is it true?
- What are the facts behind it?
- What might happen if I didn’t believe it? (Sometimes holding onto our beliefs is a way of protecting ourselves from something we are afraid of).
- What is the cost of holding onto this limiting belief?
- Who would I become if I didn’t believe this?
When you start to question your thoughts and self-talk is the beginning to self-empowerment.
The fact is that many of our beliefs our engrained in us when we were younger and they weren’t based on truth. They may have simply been someone’s frustration blurting out untrue facts, such as, “You’re so stupid, or you’ll never be successful.” Or, someone unknowingly is making statements that stick with you (when they shouldn’t) such as: “She’s the shy one or he’s not very coordinated. Or, she doesn’t make friends easily”, etc.
Sadly it happens too often and 99% of the time people don’t deserve to hear these things that are said so nonchalantly but leave a lifetime impact on us. Then there are the beliefs you garner along the way through your own experiences of life and how it all unfolds for you.
Regardless if they’re old or new beliefs, get clear on the fact that they aren’t serving you very well. And also get clear on the fact that when you begin to dig down and dissect them what you will find is that you have been telling yourself things for years that perhaps simply aren’t true. You deserve the truth. And you deserve to make life decisions based on solid facts instead of worn out lies that you’ve been mentally carrying around for way too long.
So pick up a copy of “Develop the Mental Strength of a Warrior”, quarantine those thoughts and beliefs as they are the viruses that infect your life. They only hold you back from experiencing what you are truly capable and reaching your personal success.