5 Most Common Limiting Beliefs and How To Overcome Them

Negative beliefs about yourself, also known as limiting beliefs, limit your ability to grow. They also limit your ability to love yourself and to do what you really want to do.

Working on your mindset and what you believe about yourself is crucial for creating a life that you love, because what you believe becomes your reality.

And to be honest, even as someone who has worked as a Transformation Coach for over 7 years, I still work on my mindset all the time; it’s work in progress. I’m by no means perfect; I try all the time to be aware of my mindset, but damn it’s difficult sometimes!

But it’s hugely important for your success and ability to develop.

Your mindset is all your beliefs that influence how you see yourself and the world around you. It could be beliefs you have inherited from your parents, from previous experiences, or from people and society around you.

I have a FREE step-by-step guide to getting rid of a limiting belief, that you can download here.

So what are Beliefs?

A belief is a valse conviction you gained by coming to a wrong conclusion in a certain situation.

Beliefs are essentially assumptions we make about ourselves, about others, and about how we expect things to be in our world. We have all these theories, ideas, and explanations about how things are and how they ought to be.

Likewise, we make all these conclusions about life and about other people, all of which help us make better sense of the world. In other words, we use beliefs as anchors that help express our understanding of the world around us.

It’s important to note that beliefs are not facts. However, deeply ingrained beliefs can indeed be mistaken as facts. These beliefs are often nothing more than conclusions you have drawn based on your childhood experiences.

Back then these beliefs may have served you, and that is why you have held onto them for so long.

However, as an adult, these beliefs may no longer serve a purpose. In fact, these beliefs may actually become a hindrance as they are no longer compatible with your life or circumstances. Your life has changed, however, your beliefs have remained constant, which is why you’re feeling stuck in the present.

When does a belief become limiting?

When something you believe to be true starts to limit you in some way, is when a belief turns into a limiting belief. The limiting belief could be about you, other people or even the world. These beliefs may :

• hold you back from making different choices in your life,
• keep you from seeing the different opportunities presented to you each day,
• prevent you from seeing your own gifts or accepting the gifts offered to you, or
• keep you stuck focusing on the negative aspect of your circumstances.

One of the challenges of limiting beliefs is most of us don't think we have them and they can be hard to spot.

How to discover your Limiting Beliefs?

Start by noting your own thoughts. The first step is always to become aware of something and in this case you want to become aware of your beliefs.

Write down your beliefs. These can be sayings you've heard when you were young like: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush or I would have had a much better job if I had gotten my degree, I am never fortunate, It doesn't matter what I do I will fail etc...

Your second step is to figure out what it is you want. These are your goals, objectives and the outcomes you would like to achieve. These are the things you’ve been working toward for weeks, months, and even years, but for one reason or another they are things you’ve been unable to achieve.

Your limiting beliefs often hide beyond conscious awareness. However, there are key signals you can look out for that will provide you with the clues you need to identify these limiting beliefs. These key signals will be evident when you confront obstacles and challenges along your journey toward your goals.

You typically won’t be able to overcome obstacles and problems because of the limiting beliefs that are occupying the space between your ears. For instance, your limiting beliefs can potentially manifest in the following ways:

• When you make excuses.
• When you complain about things.
• When you indulge in negative thoughts.
• When you indulge in unhelpful habits.
• When you talk to yourself in limiting and unhelpful ways.
• When you jump to conclusions and/or make assumptions.
• When you hesitate or express your fears.
• When you worry about failure or about making mistakes.
• When you worry uncontrollably for no apparent reason.
• When you think about procrastinating.
• When you think about indulging in perfectionism.

Take all of these things into consideration and list down all the limiting beliefs that come to mind as you work toward your goals. And yes, even “thinking” about your goals applies.

I have a FREE step-by-step guide to getting rid of a limiting belief, that you can download here.

The 5 Most Common Limiting Beliefs and How to Challenge them

Here are five very common limiting beliefs and how you can challenge them.

1. ‘It’s hopeless’

Fill in the blank: I’ll never be able to do________________________, because ________________.

The problem with this belief is that if you think something isn’t possible, you won’t even try to do it. You can easily challenge this belief by instead of thinking that it’s hopeless.

Ask yourself instead: ‘How is it possible?’

2. ‘I’m helpless’

An example could be that you think you’ll never be able to run your own business, because no one has taught you how to run a business. Maybe you are not good with budgeting, or marketing, as you have never been taught. As you have never learnt how to do it, you will stay away from it, as it makes you uncomfortable.

When you don’t know how to do something or if you think a goal is too big, you start to feel helpless. The weight of the goal, or the steps involved, seems too difficult, and you give up.

Ask yourself instead: “What do I already know about it?” and “What can I do to learn more?”

3. It’s useless

You might think that it’s too late to switch careers, or that you shouldn’t bother learning a new language for instance, as it will take too much time before you see a result. If something doesn’t seem desirable, you may view it as useless. But most events have both a short-term and long-term result. If you only focus on short-term results you can miss an opportunity.

Ask yourself instead: ‘How is it desirable?’ ‘What could be good/positive about it?’

4. I’m blameless

With this belief, you’ll blame someone or something else externally for why you can’t do what you want to do. For example, ‘I can’t start my own business, because the economy is so bad at the moment and it would be a risk’. To be honest, blaming external events or situations is the easy and lazy way out. Interestingly though, once the current external event is over (the economy gets better), you quickly find something else to blame for your situation.

Ask yourself instead: ‘How am I responsible?’

5. I’m worthless or I'm not good enough

‘I can’t run my own online business, because I’m not smart/techy/business-minded/entrepreneurial enough’. Feeling worthless and undeserving puts the blinders on you. You fail to notice what you’re good at and consequently think you’re worthless or not good enough.

Ask yourself instead: ‘How do I deserve it?’

When you address and challenge your beliefs, it can be a little bit scary at first (or even super frightening!). You are basically rocking the foundations of a belief system that you have probably had for a long time.

But when you choose to change a belief, the effect can be both immediate and dramatic.

You can actually choose to just believe something else. It’s your choice!

I’ll say that again: You can actually CHOOSE to just believe something else.

Imagine that!

And the more you look around for evidence of your new belief, the more examples you will find, which will help to build your confidence in your new belief system.

I 've also written a kick-ass module that will help you discover AND get rid of your Limiting Beliefs once and for all! It's called the Transform Limiting Beliefs Formula and more information on it (and/or ordering it right away!) can be found here.

If you are not sure this module is for you or if you have any other questions or would like to discuss which step would be your best logical next step, book a FREE discover call with me.

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