Limiting Beliefs: Stop Feeding The Root Cause

oWhen you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.~Dr. Wayne Dyer
You know you should do something, but you don’t do it. You promise yourself that today is the day, but you are too afraid. You want to take action, but you don’t know how. At the root of this failure to launch is a belief or fear that is crippling your best intentions. For everything you desire to be or accomplish, you are just one negative thought (and a barrelful of accompanying feelings) away from unimpeded success.

In fact, probably 90% of the deeds you hope to accomplish could be accomplished — if it weren’t for limiting beliefs and the overwhelmingly powerful feelings that fuel these beliefs. The only person getting in your way is you.

These powerful feelings have been reinforced over time by continual negative thinking. When u were a child, perhaps things happened to undermine your confidence or sense of self-worth. Over the years, these thoughts and feelings have been brewing  and penetrating your psyche. They have carved deep grooves in your brain circuitry. The longer you have nourished limiting belief or fear, the more implanted it is in your mind. (Take a look at these books on the science of neuroplasticity that confirms these truths:  The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (by Norman Doidge, M.D. or Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves)

You can reduce or eliminate your limiting beliefs. And once you do this, your life will turn around 180 degrees.

You will accomplish things you never thought possible.

You will not fear fear.

You will find a purpose and passion in life and find opportunities everywhere.

In fact, you will create opportunities out of thin air and begin to soar.

To kill limiting beliefs, you can’t just address the superficial thoughts. You have to find the root cause and exterminate it.

This isn’t to suggest you need years of counseling and soul searching. You don’t have to delve into every aspect of your unhappy childhood or your horrible marriage.

But you do need to focus on three key areas:

• Focus on one limiting belief at a time. Start with one that really impedes with your growth. It needs to be a biggie.  What’s yours? You don’t feel good enough? You don’t make enough money? You’re not intelligent enough? You aren’t as attractive as others? You don’t feel lovable? We all have one that haunts us and touches every aspect of our lives.

• Why do you have this limiting belief? You should keep asking this question of yourself until you run out of answers. Write down every possible reason you come up with, starting with the primary one that likely occurred when you were a child. Write down these reasons so you can remember them. Keep adding to the list if need be.

• Begin undermining these reasons with contradictory evidence. Because you  feel a certain way about yourself doesn’t make it true. And if there once was truth in the original belief, you have grown and changed since then. It isn’t necessarily true now. There are many reasons now to prove that you are intelligent, lovable, attractive, etc. Write these down next to each of the reasons you listed above.

As you do these exercises, you are spraying poison on the root of your limiting belief.  You can follow these steps for all of your limiting beliefs.

But . . . you can’t stop there. You have to reinforce your new beliefs over and over again. You must rewire your brain to create new neural pathways with a new way of thinking.

If you want to learn to do this, I offer more detailed instructions on a free video that I’ve created on overcoming limiting beliefs.

You can check it out by going to this link and scrolling down near the bottom of the page where you see the free videos. I take you through an exercise to show you how to isolate the belief, attack the root cause, and reinforce the new thinking with some special techniques.

Here’s another assessment tool to help you isolate your limiting beliefs.

• Review the statements below, and check those that really resonate with you.

• After you choose, ask yourself “why” for each statement, repeating this question until you run out of answers.

• Your very last answer is often the root of your belief. But you have to be totally honest with yourself to uncover the root cause.

_____I have not really made the authentic choice to be fully alive and engaged in life for the rest of my life.

_____I need to be right.

_____I have unresolved issues, problems, and difficulties in my life.

_____I am not clear on my personal values or I am not living in alignment with them.

_____I am addicted or attached to substances, people, or behaviors.

_____I am currently living a big lie.

_____I really don’t have anything better to do with my life right now.

_____I have financial problems or other major lifestyle concerns.

_____I am missing key, empowering relationships in my life.

_____My needs are not being met.

_____My life is primarily about me and my problems.

_____I don’t get how life works so well for other people but not for me.

_____I have not experienced very much in life yet. My life is boring.

_____I am under a lot of stress.

_____I don’t take care of myself or my health the way I should.

Uncovering and acknowledging the root cause of a limiting belief allows you to ultimately address it and eliminate it.  To kill these limiting beliefs, practice the techniques I explain in my free video. I hope you will check it out here: Limiting Beliefs Video

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