Limiting Belief

Recently I read a book by Jack Canfield, "The Success Principles". One of the things he wrote is about Limiting Beliefs. We often suffer from limiting beliefs such as

• I'm not (smart, attractive, rich, old or creative) enough
• I don't deserve to be this successful
• Even if I don't like my job, I need the money to live

We often develop these limiting beliefs about ourselves very early in life. It may come from what our family, teachers or friends say to us when we are still very young. We do not yet have the capacity to distinguish whether their statements are true or accurate, we simply accept them to be true. Statements by parents or teachers often have huge impact in our lives, simply because they are the authority figures in our younger years and we trust and believe them.

How do we overcome this negative/limiting beliefs? Jack Canfield gave a simple four-step process to overcome any limiting belief:

1. Identify any limiting belief that you want to change
2. Determine how the belief limits you
3. Decide how you want to be, act or feel
4. Create a turnaround statement that affirms or gives you permission to be, act or feel this new way

He even provided a template for this process.

1. My negative/limiting belief is __________.
2. The way it limits me is __________.
3. The way I want to be, act or feel is __________.
4. My turnaround statement that affirms or gives me permission to do this is __________.

When read about these limiting beliefs, I remember about an incident in my life. I have a limiting belief that I am not a creative person. It's because in my kindergarten years, one of the teacher wrote in my report card : Creativity - Inadequate. Why do I still remember this remark? It's because other qualities such as Intelligence, Discipline, Neatness, and many more were give Excellent mark...such a contrast with my Creativity! From then on, I just belief that I'm everything but creative.

Going to the four-step process:
1. My negative/limiting belief is that I am not creative.
2. The way it limits me is that I avoid any task that need some creativity and that's a lot of tasks to avoid! I am also feeling inadequate and afraid when given such tasks.
3. The way I want to be, act or feel is that I am creative and I am excited when given a task that needs creativity. I feel confident that I can generate a lot of great ideas.
4. My turnaround statement is I am a creative person and I am becoming more creative and innovative everyday.

I think I will do more of this four-step process for any limiting beliefs in my life since it's been very helpful to my personal growth :)

I'd suggest that if you have any limiting beliefs, just do this four-step process and see how it can make a difference in your quality of life.

Learn and Grow!