Have you ever had a goal in mind, but felt like it was too out of reach for you to accomplish? Have you expressed your goals and ideas to people who you thought would be supportive, but in turn projected their fears and doubts onto you? These instances are some of many examples of limiting beliefs and fears, that essentially prevent you from accomplishing your goals.
I often notice that many times we will have great ambitions for a specific goal, but we often halt its progress, or success, because we feel like achieving the goal will be unattainable given our current circumstances. Those thoughts often stem from the limiting beliefs and fears that cloud our mind, and have probably been deposited by others. Some examples of common limiting beliefs are lack of resources, lack of time, lack of experiences, etc. The general belief is that the absence of those things will jeopardize the success of the overall goal. So many other limiting beliefs can surface from the results of other individuals’ journey for the same goal, leading you to believe that because it didn’t work out for them, it won’t work out for you.
The topic of limiting beliefs and fears regarding achieving goals, is a topic I wanted to focus on, due to the reality that many individuals give up on themselves without even trying. I grew up with the cliché but true mindset of “You can do anything that you put your mind to”, and that is exactly what I do in every instance. Because of this mindset, I started a Mindset coaching practice for African, Caribbean and Black millennials, to empower and encourage a mindset shift from limiting beliefs to an abundance mindset, thus allowing people to achieve anything they put their mind to. I’ll speak more about this in another post, but if you would like to know more information , click here.
In starting this practice, I expounded on the importance of uncovering and transforming the limiting beliefs that often come up when speaking and pursuing your goals. It’s great to know what you’re impacted with, instead of blindly setting yourself up for downfall every time you set new goals.
So let’s learn how to recognize your own limiting beliefs…
Uncovering limiting beliefs
As mentioned before, your limiting beliefs regarding a goal can appear as many different reasons. For example, if your goal is to start a new business, your limiting belief could be that you think that you do not have enough start up funds to finance any related expenses. Due to this thought, you either delay or dismiss the act of starting this goal altogether. These thoughts often stem from misconceptions of the goal, projections from others, or lack of confidence in achieving the goal.
Realizing the effects of the limiting beliefs on your goal
With having these limiting beliefs and acting on them, you are often counting yourself out of any problem solving towards the succession of your goal. With reference to the business example, automatically thinking that because you don’t have start-up funds you cannot achieve opening this venture, disregards any other step or solution that could be helpful.
Within a goal journey, being able to be creative and pivot your strategy to reach the end goal is key ! We saw it for the past couple of years within the pandemic, businesses changing their business model to adapt and accommodate to the new time. Most of those businesses would not have been as profitable, if they didn’t realize the obstacle at hand and created a solution to avoid negative effects. The same can be done for individuals with goals that don’t match their current circumstances. Believing that you can achieve the goal, and thinking outside of the box in order to succeed, are the first steps in overcoming the limiting belief.
Overcoming your limiting beliefs
When we set a goal, there is usually an underlying ambitious spirit that is eager to accomplish this goal. This shows up in how we talk about the goal, being fascinated with the end result and how circumstances can change as a result. However, when the dark clouds of limiting beliefs start to creep up, all of that ambition seems to be forced away.
In understanding what our limiting belief is and realizing its effect on the succession of the goal, it is imperative to create a new found mindset system so that the goal’s journey can thrive. Overcoming this way of thinking helps to open up all of the possibilities and positive outcomes that can arise.Therefore,when you think of and work on your goal, any obstacles that may arise you will then have a firm solution to override it. This can be illustrated by changing the way you speak about your goal, surrounding yourself with people who are uplifting and/or working on their own goals, and overall creating an immaculate success routine. That routine will consist of purposeful self-care rituals to cater to the transformed mindset and nurture a safe environment for success. This realignment phase takes some getting used to, but is beneficial to the preservation of the elevated mindset you’re in.
These are the foundational strategies I guide individuals with to kick off their mindset journey. They help to uncover the limiting beliefs that have halted or derailed any goals that you may have thought of, but were not successful in achieving. Changing your habits, conversations and crowd that you surround yourself with, will definitely showcase an improved and better outcome when it comes to your mindset and aligned goals.
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At the end of the day, your mindset is the foundation to your actions. If you are starting off any task or goal with limitations and beliefs of unattainability, you are already starting off on the wrong footing. Strengthen your mindset by getting to the root of the limiting beliefs that cause you to think in this manner. I created a helpful tool that can be of assistance in uncovering the root to those limiting beliefs. Take the time to learn the causes, so that you can prevent repeating the same habits for your newer goals.