“You begin to fly when you let go of self-limiting beliefs and allow your mind and aspirations to rise to greater heights” Brian Tracy
You are a slave of your beliefs. You can never rise beyond the limitation of your beliefs; that is why you are still unable to outgrow bad habits preventing you from realizing your true potential. Many people desire to transform into better versions of themselves, but only few manage to reach their full potential because of the self-limiting and negative beliefs they have about themselves.
Beliefs are information that you accept to be true in your mind. If you think that you are afraid of large audiences, then you will always be terrified at social gatherings; if you believe that you do not know how make new friends and have great relationships, then you will always have unhappy and strained relationships with friends. That is how beliefs are powerful and determine how your life turns out to be.
Beliefs begin as ideas in your mind. Ideas can be created after going through a bad experience or observing somebody close to you undergo a problem. You accept these ideas as true in your mind, and continuously perform actions that strengthen this idea. After a couple of repetitions, the idea becomes transformed into a belief, and you have act in way that corresponds to your beliefs. That is how you developed that self-limiting belief you desire to outgrow.
I had self-limiting beliefs that kept from realizing my true potential. I struggled with my speech when I was growing up because I was a stutterer. I could barely speak two words in a coherent manner. My classmates laughed at me. I was ashamed of my problem; I desired to speak fluently like my classmates but I just couldn’t speak. I was helpless; I was so low, and began to create the idea that I was not good enough. I spent the whole day comparing myself to my friends: I developed low self-esteem.
After years of pain and self-doubt, I decided to seek help from a psychologist. She took me through an intense program that helped shift my mindset and beliefs. I realized that my stutter severed because of my self-limiting belief that I was not a fluent speaker. By the time I was through with the program, it was difficult to notice my stutter. That is what belief can do.
If you desire to become a better version of yourself, then you will have to focus on a mindset shift. You have to Identify and replace your self-limiting beliefs about yourself with positive beliefs that I am going to show you how to create. In this article, I am going to show you the techniques I used to overcome self-limiting beliefs and conquer stuttering that prevented me from realizing my true potential.
Acknowledge your self-limiting beliefs
“The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.” Zig Ziglar
If you want to conquer any problem, you must first accept and recognize it presence and effects in your life. It is only after you admit to yourself that you have a problem, can you begin to accept change. Take a piece of paper and write down all the self-limiting beliefs that you have. If you are having trouble remembering most of them, record your deepest fears. For example,
- I cannot speak in front of a large audience.
- I am not beautiful.
- I am not intelligent.
- I do not know how to create and maintain great relationships.
- I cannot build a successful business.
Acknowledging your self-limiting beliefs is the first step to towards a positive shift in your mindset. It is the beginning of your transformation into a better version of yourself.
Question your limiting beliefs
“We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs or we don’t. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality or we begin to challenge them…” Pema Chodron
You have already jotted down your self-limiting beliefs; the next step towards conquering this dangerous ailment is to question its validity. Beliefs are as strong as the evidence you provide to prove their validity in your life. These evidence serve to support your belief. Beliefs begin as ideas that become opinions, and later come together to form a belief: a belief is therefore not real. The same way you created these limiting beliefs is the way you will create a belief that challenges them. You will do that by asking yourself these questions:
- Is this belief helping me get what I want most in life?
- Will it help me reach my goals?
- How would others question the validity of this belief?
- What are the critical flaws in believing what I believe?
- If I were a successful entrepreneur like Steve Jobs or a famous sportsman like Mohamed Ali, how would I think about this belief?
These questions make your beliefs uncomfortable. They trigger a doubt to your limiting beliefs and promote a positive shift towards conquering your negative beliefs. The more energy you focus towards answering these questions, the more you will doubt your self-limiting beliefs. And the faster you will move towards your transformation process.
Consider the Consequences of Your Limiting Beliefs
Change can only be realized the moment you begin to associate your current beliefs with pain and suffering. The more you become angry at your current situation, the higher the chances of working towards changing it. At this stage, you begin to consider the possible results of living with these limiting beliefs.
Ask yourself these questions:
- How will not changing my limiting beliefs affect my relationship with others?
- How will not changing my beliefs affect me physically? Spiritually? Financially?
- What are the long term consequences of not making this change?
These questions are designed to make you realize that your life will never be better while you still accommodate these self-limiting beliefs. These questions will catalyze the process of abandoning these negative beliefs that only derail your progress in life.
Replace the Limiting Beliefs with New Beliefs
“The best way to overcome limiting beliefs is to replace them with liberating truths.” Michael Hyatt
The only way to get rid of an old belief is to replace with a new one. The easiest way to creating a new belief is using affirmations. Affirmations are positive statements that you make about yourself in faith that they are true. For example,
- I am confident!
- I act courageously!
- I am a great conversationalist!
- I attract positive people into my life!
- I am a charming speaker!
R.H. Lelchuk says that for an affirmation to overcome a limiting belief, one must first release the emotion surrounding the targeted limiting belief and replace it with emotional vibration of the new belief. Keep repeating these affirmations throughout the day. If possible, every hour. This technique worked for me. I used it to overcome low self-esteem and reduce the severity of my stuttering. Jennifer Lopez says she states affirmations for at least 15 minutes every day; Oprah Winfrey says that she would never have accomplished what she has today without affirmations.
Strengthen Your New Beliefs About Yourself
“My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me: it has only strengthened me.” Steve Maraboli.
This is the most important step in the process of conquering self-limiting beliefs. The mind requires evidences to accept a belief. The only way to get evidences is to look for quotes that support your belief. If you get a successful person who suffered and overcame the problem you are having, then you will be able to use his story as an evidence to the possibility of conquering your problem. You will use his story to strengthen your new beliefs.
Write down the quotes that strengthen your beliefs on sticker and put it where you will be able to see it as often as possible. I put mine on my bathroom wall and on my bedroom desktop where I can see it when I wake up and before I go to sleep.
In Conclusion
These are the steps I followed to conquer my low self-esteem and stuttering. And I believe that they will work out for you. You have to understand that change requires commitment. If you are not committed to your goals, then you will never outgrow your current situation. You will be reduced to the life of mediocrity and averageness. Commit and be disciplined to overcoming your self-limiting beliefs because you can conquer anything that you believe you can!