Limited beliefs are a state of mind, they are the story you tell yourself. They are who or what you believe ourselves to be. Examples of limited beliefs maybe I have poor grammar skills, I have never been good at sports, I cannot play football because I am a girl or boys cannot wear pink. Limited beliefs are thoughts that we allow to hold us back from expressing our authentic self.
I have always had an undying belief that I could do anything, sometimes I am a little over the top. I have dived off cliffs, walked on hot coals, played basketball with a cast on my foot, hiked a four-hour hike that caused me so much pain the next day I could not walk. I drove in snowstorms or blizzards until I got in a bad car accident. Like I said, I am a little over the top. I am not recommending you should be unsafe, but even before I started studying this area of human behaviour, I intuitively knew that is how limited beliefs work. They can push you forward in a positive way or hold you back from becoming everything you can be. If I did not push myself to do things that some people would call crazy, I would not have the trust and belief in myself to conquer my fears. I would not have learned that I could accomplish what some said was impossible. I have lived my life pushing imaginary rules that society or my family had created, and I have only had success in doing so.
Limited beliefs are also what you have been taught to believe. My own limited beliefs have been around education because I struggled when I was young with reading. I stuttered when asked to read aloud in class. In junior high, we were assigned a presentation on a subject of our choice. My presentation got the highest mark, and the prize was reading it in front of the entire school. It is funny how the Universe works sometimes. Even though my motivation to do well was to avoid embarrassment from my friends, I read it and did a great job! I did so well in fact, I was awarded Most Inspirational Speech and received a metal that hung around my neck. To this day that metal was something I was always proud of. The award led me to many other great lessons in my life. I never realized the depth of our limited beliefs until later in life. After I graduated high school, I had a reoccurring dream that I never graduated and that I had to go back to school to finish. The insecurity that somehow there had been a mistake and I did not actually graduate was not true. I had not failed any class or grade. I did not go to University or College because I did not believe that I had the opportunity financially or academically.
After 19 years of running my own business, I decided to go in another direction and started my journey becoming a Naturopathic Therapist. I did not achieve this designation the conventional way. I found a way to do the courses and certifications that I had an interest in and felt confident I could complete. I then stood before the regulatory board to get my license. Even after being a Certified Naturopathic Therapist for over ten years I had a limiting belief that some day my license would be taken from me. I finally realized this belief while in a course to become a Life coach. In the course, my limiting belief was causing so much fear and anxiety it was negatively impacting my performance. Realizing and becoming aware of the belief, that I felt as if I would never measure up to others academically in the course, helped me to see how this was crippling my achievement. I was the only Canadian in the course and all my classmates seemed to have a high level of education. I felt inferior but, I quickly learned that it was my belief, and I could decide how I wanted to allow this to affect me. I used this to push myself into a new awareness and belief. I can do anything I put my mind to, and I have been in a new state of awareness since. I started to realize how I never let my limited beliefs stop me in the past and that they have pushed me. The belief was presenting in a negative way however it always was someone else’s belief not mine. Looking back, I never allowed this belief to stop me. I know I have lived an incredible life. The limited beliefs that we allow our environment, or family to affect us is ours to own. Just because they are in our awareness does not mean we have to own them. You can change your limited beliefs through action. If you know the destination you want to reach, you simply need a plan of action and faith that you can achieve it. Loving ourselves and developing a strategy is key.
In the end, we get to choose and sometimes all we need is permission. So, I am here to say, YOU have permission to be everything you came here to be.
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has answer, it sings because it has a song.” – Maya Angelou
