Recently, I have been taking an online leadership course from a university. I am only in week two, but have been reluctant to watch the videos. I was not sure why I didn't feel excited and inspired. Then, during one of the videos today, It hit me, the reason was clear. I keep hearing the instructor giving an inspiring statement, and then following it with a limiting belief. It sounded to me like, "Reach for the stars, but you'll never get there." Then what is the point in reaching? This brought up many things throughout my life, where I realized I've been hearing that, saying that and believing that for myself. Part of what he is saying is true, but there is another way to say it that does not create a limiting belief and lead you to failure.
One example was a video in which he was discussing great leaders. He said Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great leader, but none of us can be him. Well, yes and no. Yes, we are not the same man as him, but we can be just as great as him, or better. When I heard that statement, I felt like he was saying you can never be as great as him, you will never do what he did. What he could have said instead was this; you may not be Martin Luther King, Jr., but you can be your own unique version of greatness, you can be just as good of a leader as him and even better. That is a true statement. There is no limit to what you or I can do, and stating it in the second manner does not leave room to create that limiting belief.
I see this all the time, people creating idols or superstars in their professions, religions and hobbies. We put them up there on a pedestal and say, "Man, it would be so great to be like them." Our mind is saying, "I'm not good enough to be like them. I don't deserve to be like them. I'm not worthy...' None of those statements are true. We all begin in the same place and we all have the opportunity to do something better, but we have to believe that we can be and do something better. A better way to look at our superstars is as an opening to something more. They paved the road, opened the door so that I, too, can be a better version of me.
This limiting belief of, "You can try, but you'll never succeed.", sets you up for failure and self-sabotage. If you really believe that you'll never get there and you keep trying because it is something you love or are excited about, you will never get there. You have set yourself up to fail, because you don't believe you can. You may have little successes here and there only to sabotage yourself and have a major set-back. It's like dieting. "I really want to lose 50 pounds." So, you hire a personal trainer, go on a diet, lose 40 pounds and then something happens. You miss your personal training sessions, you eat that piece of cake at a friend's birthday party and you "fall off the wagon". Well, what really happened, is that somewhere along the way you learned, "you will never succeed" and when you got close to your goal suddenly things fell apart. You didn't lose your ability to lose weight, you lost your belief that you could.
There are many ways to work with this if you recognize this within yourself. I enjoying tapping, breathwork, meditation and awareness as methods to recognize when there is a limiting belief present and then to work on peeling back the layers, the instances in life that proved it to be true, the emotion carried with it and then to let it go and change the belief into one that serves the BEST version of me.
One example was a video in which he was discussing great leaders. He said Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great leader, but none of us can be him. Well, yes and no. Yes, we are not the same man as him, but we can be just as great as him, or better. When I heard that statement, I felt like he was saying you can never be as great as him, you will never do what he did. What he could have said instead was this; you may not be Martin Luther King, Jr., but you can be your own unique version of greatness, you can be just as good of a leader as him and even better. That is a true statement. There is no limit to what you or I can do, and stating it in the second manner does not leave room to create that limiting belief.
I see this all the time, people creating idols or superstars in their professions, religions and hobbies. We put them up there on a pedestal and say, "Man, it would be so great to be like them." Our mind is saying, "I'm not good enough to be like them. I don't deserve to be like them. I'm not worthy...' None of those statements are true. We all begin in the same place and we all have the opportunity to do something better, but we have to believe that we can be and do something better. A better way to look at our superstars is as an opening to something more. They paved the road, opened the door so that I, too, can be a better version of me.
This limiting belief of, "You can try, but you'll never succeed.", sets you up for failure and self-sabotage. If you really believe that you'll never get there and you keep trying because it is something you love or are excited about, you will never get there. You have set yourself up to fail, because you don't believe you can. You may have little successes here and there only to sabotage yourself and have a major set-back. It's like dieting. "I really want to lose 50 pounds." So, you hire a personal trainer, go on a diet, lose 40 pounds and then something happens. You miss your personal training sessions, you eat that piece of cake at a friend's birthday party and you "fall off the wagon". Well, what really happened, is that somewhere along the way you learned, "you will never succeed" and when you got close to your goal suddenly things fell apart. You didn't lose your ability to lose weight, you lost your belief that you could.
There are many ways to work with this if you recognize this within yourself. I enjoying tapping, breathwork, meditation and awareness as methods to recognize when there is a limiting belief present and then to work on peeling back the layers, the instances in life that proved it to be true, the emotion carried with it and then to let it go and change the belief into one that serves the BEST version of me.
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