11. Self-Limiting Beliefs
Note: This is the eleventh article in a series on Big Growth for Young Professionals. Miss the first few articles? Each are numbered in the Featured section of my profile on LinkedIn, or you can catch them on my blog at karisaylor.com!
Somewhere along your Big Growth journey, you are going to face self-limiting beliefs. One (or many) of these thoughts might pop into your head:
I am going to share with you three things that have helped me move forward when stuck (and continue to serve me when I am facing a new fear)!
100% is Possible, 100% of the Time
In my Leadership training this summer, I learned of a concept called “100% is possible, 100% of the time.” I am not going to lie. At first, I shook my head. There is only so much time in the day! You HAVE to prioritize! And you do. But the mindset shift was something I was really missing. So, for me, that has meant that I CAN have a full time job, be a wife, be a mom, start a side-hustle, have friends, see my family, be in a very active leadership training and so many more things. It means I GET TO live in abundance of time, not scarcity. It means I get to show up for those things that are important to me and it is just mechanics in how it all works out.
What has 100% looked like this week? It has looked like traveling to Michigan for my Grandma’s funeral, and communicating and prepping well at work before and after the trip. It has meant I continued to write my articles and publish them during my son’s nap time on our trip and stayed committed and connected to my leadership team. It has meant I still sourced groceries and made food (and sourced some take out!). It has meant I have been able to be there for my family both near and far during this difficult time. And when we were supposed to travel to Pennsylvania to see my husband’s family this weekend, it meant we made a stop there for a night on our drive home from Michigan.?Life events will occur while you are working towards your Big Growth goals.?Do not let them derail you.
Giving 100%, 100% of the time is the?effort required to stop getting by and start getting ahead. It is the difference between playing to win vs. playing not to lose. It is living with intention and by design!
Overcoming Perfectionism
I mentioned in a previous article that in my #365DaysOfLearning journey over the last year, every day I learned something new and posted about it on LinkedIn. Let me tell you about that first week. IMPOSTER SYNDROME. I had all sorts of hesitation. LinkedIn is a professional platform, I am a CPA, and I am going to learn and post about non-CPA things? Will I be taken seriously? What will my network think?
So I set out wanting every post to be perfect. Coming up with a topic that was relevant, curating a well thought out post talking about the learning, providing a link to the source (that didn’t totally truncate the reach of the post depending on placement), displaying perfect grammar and spelling, the right hashtags and use of emojis, having the right balance of showing my personality but not being “too fun” and “unprofessional,” and the list goes on! Can you feel how much pressure I was putting on myself for a silly daily post on LinkedIn?
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The more I showed up and posted, the less pressure there seemed to be because not as much was riding on ONE post. Chances were, a good percentage of my network was not even going to see my post anyway! So, I started to use the idea that if I could get to 70-80% happy with the post, it was getting posted. The incremental time I was spending perfecting everything about the post was much better used to find another learning that I could read and post about tomorrow. After all, this wasn’t the only thing I had going on in my life! I had a full-time job, a husband and toddler, a house and ALL the time scarcity.
And that might be where a Big Growth goal fits in for you! It is an extra, lobbed on top of a very busy schedule. And that is ok! For high achievers, that is quite normal! But if it is important to you, you know 100% is possible, 100% of the time.
And I dare say that it is NORMAL to feel like there is a monkey on your shoulder, talking a bunch of nonsense into your ear?! It is normal to feel the imposter syndrome. But it is not ok to be paralyzed by the fear. Feel it, experience it and then be bigger than it.?
Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn
John C. Maxwell has a wonderful book called “Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn.” He also has written one for kids by a similar title, helping them in their growth journey. How awesome would it be to know that lesson when you are growing up?!
I just love the title of the book. Instead of saying sometimes you lose, you get to shift that to learn. As you work through your Big Growth goal, you will have plenty of opportunities for learning! Smile, tell yourself that this has been an excellent learning opportunity and keep going! Use what you have learned for the betterment of yourself and your goal. What if…your goal gets accomplished faster, or turns out better than you could have ever imagined because you learned this important lesson? THANK YOU for the lesson!
Success lies not in eliminating our troubles and mistakes but in growing through and with them. - John C. Maxwell
Conclusion
What self-limiting beliefs do you have around your goal? Write them down. Now, write down what way of being will help you move forward, even when you have butterflies on butterflies on butterflies. Face the fear and do it anyways.
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