Have you ever found yourself feeling like you’re constrained when it comes to things like achieving your goals or reaching your dreams? Like there’s something holding you back, but you just can’t quite put your finger on it? I know I have…
Many women experience self-limiting beliefs, which have the ability to affect our mindsets and our ability to push forward in achieving our goals. And while you might feel like those limiting beliefs are something that is ingrained in you or something you just have to live with, I am confident when I say that it’s possible to overcome them.
With an open mind, and some coaching on your side, it’s more than possible to shift your mindset and move past the beliefs that are limiting your ability to succeed.
Let’s dive into this concept a little further and explore how coaching can help you to overcome those self-limiting beliefs.
What Are Self-Limiting Beliefs?
If you’re not familiar with self-limiting beliefs, they’re essentially the things you believe about yourself that place limitations on your abilities. They are assumptions about reality that have been constructed and aren’t true—even though you believe them to be.
Self-limiting beliefs are problematic because they mean we deceive ourselves when it comes to working towards our goals. We need to maintain beliefs that are as close to reality as possible in order for our actions to have a positive effect.
Examples of Self-Limiting Beliefs
Some examples of self-limiting beliefs include:
- What’s wrong with me? : “There’s clearly something wrong with me because I can’t lose weight).”
- I don’t have enough time: “Self-care and prioritizing my own needs isn’t something I have time for.”
- I won’t be successful: “There’s no way I will lose the weight that’s holding me back, plus I’ve failed before.”
- I’m not good enough: “I’m not good enough to achieve my goals; I’m not disciplined enough; I’m not committed enough, etc.”
As you can see, self-limiting beliefs are incredibly negative. The truth is that almost every woman (and person!) has them and will experience self-limiting beliefs from time to time. They come from a place of fear and can be incredibly debilitating, especially if you’re trying to reach new goals, such as weight loss.
That’s why it’s so imperative that we learn how to identify and overcome self-limiting beliefs. Failure to do so means staying within your comfort zone. It also means lacking the positive change that you need in your life.
While it’s always easier to stay within that comfort zone, it’s possible to break away from the cycle and empower yourself with a little coaching.
Coaching and Self-Limiting Beliefs
When you’re stuck in the cycle of self-limiting beliefs, coaching is a fantastic tool for helping you to become more in charge of your thoughts. Coaching allows you to take a step back and will help to shift your mindset in a constructive way.
How Does Coaching Work for Self-Limiting Beliefs?
In order to be rid of your self-limiting beliefs, you need to develop a mindset that aligns with whatever it is you want to achieve. When you maintain a negative way of thinking, it makes it abundantly more difficult to make progress toward what you are seeking. In fact, many women find themselves thinking more about the problems they have. Rather than the viable solutions for those problems.
A woman’s mindset is everything! A positive mindset can help you to make better decisions, gain confidence, and practice better self-discipline. Even when things feel out of your comfort zone.
Coaching aims to accomplish a few things when it comes to women’s mindsets:
- Building a mindset focused on growth and pinpointing the blocks that might be contributing to your current mindset.
- Developing an awareness of what your current assumptions and beliefs are regarding yourself and the world, and how these assumptions have affected your decisions and outcomes up to this point.
- Building a better mindset that stays away from limitations and instead focuses on what’s possible.
- Developing the ability to acknowledge and understand your thoughts in a given moment and then learn how to adjust them.
- And much more!
A coach will work with you to determine where improvements can be made. They will ask you things like “Where do you think this belief came from?”, “What are you afraid of?”, “What could be gained by overcoming this limiting belief?”.
These important questions help you move past the negative thoughts holding you back. Instead, they allow you to have a clear mind when working towards your goals.
How to Shift Your Mindset and Overcome Self-Limiting Beliefs
Now that you know more about coaching, how it works, and how it can be effective when it comes to shifting your mindset, I’ve put together this list of tips to help you when it comes to taking steps towards shifting your mindset and ridding yourself of those self-limiting beliefs.
Always go back to your values
When you’re presented with a problem or a challenge, it’s easy to become consumed by the present. You might start to get overwhelmed with what’s happening in the moment and fail to remember your purpose as a result.
Take a minute in these moments to recognize your values and then proceed with this reminder. Going back to your true values can help to shift your perspective and continue on more effectively.
Understand that the decision is up to you
When you start on a journey toward a new accomplishment, it’s easy to lose motivation as time goes on. Things might not go as planned. Or your progress might not be as quick as you would like it to be.
If you find yourself in this type of situation it’s powerful to remind yourself that the decision to move forward is up to you. Letting go of self-limiting beliefs and exchanging them for empowering thoughts is the best way to push past challenges and get closer to your ultimate goal.
Work on your emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is important when it comes to increasing your awareness. The more aware you are, the better you can act in your own best interest.
As you start to rewire your brain for positive thinking, emotional intelligence can be a powerful tool. The better you understand yourself the better you can get a handle on situations and move forward.
Acknowledge those self-limiting beliefs are subjective
The funny thing about self-limiting beliefs is that just because you believe them, doesn’t mean they’re true. You might have believed them for years, but the truth is they are limiting, and they impact your ability to improve and achieve the things you want in life.
Always remember they are beliefs, not facts, and that shifting your thoughts can change your reality.
Consider where these beliefs may have come from
Figuring out the source of your self-limiting beliefs can be extremely powerful. Whether it was a certain person that led you to have these beliefs or a specific event, your beliefs likely came from somewhere specific.
Finding the root cause of your beliefs is a great way to better understand that they could be flawed. As you begin to unpack where these beliefs came from it only becomes easier to let go of them and shift your mindset.
Think about situations where these beliefs have been shown to be incorrect
If you’re someone who learns best by example then it can be a great idea to think about situations where your self-limiting beliefs were shown to be incorrect. Kind of like finding “proof”.
As you begin to collect this evidence based on examples of where your self-limiting beliefs were incorrect, you can gain an understanding of how you might not be being fair to yourself. Or that your beliefs aren’t necessarily going to be true in future situations.
Challenge your thoughts
It’s easy to get comfortable in your everyday thoughts. And to put minimal effort into changing them. However, as you seek new beliefs and develop new behaviors, you must learn to respond to your old beliefs as they reappear in your life.
Keep careful tabs on your thought processes. As you do this you’ll be able to respond to and monitor your thoughts more closely.
Practice and reinforce new behaviors
The best way to ensure you move forward with a better mindset and stick to it is to constantly practice. Take action in aligning yourself with your new beliefs by practicing what you’ve learned. You should consistently reach out for new tools and techniques.
Coaching is a great step in the right direction, and a little reminder every once in a while can go a long way!
I hope this blog has given you the information you need on what self-limiting beliefs are and how you can overcome them with a coach at your side! Remember to always take things one step at a time and use the resources available to you when it comes to learning and working towards your goals. Be kind to yourself and take care of yourself and you’re sure to get there.
If you’re ready to get started on your journey toward developing a more positive mindset and reaching your goals, let’s get started!
Learn more about how to work with Jen here.
