Sticks and Stones Can’t Break Your Bubble, But Limiting Beliefs Can Really Hurt You.

Switch Lanes Carefully

Taking a two hour trip down a highway with very little traffic seemed to be a walk in the park. Cruising down the road without a care in the world heading to my destination was no problem. The sun was shining with hardly anyone else on the road but me. 

I decided to cruise in the middle lane to allow others to easily merge onto the highway from their exits. Before I switch lanes, I routinely look to my rear view mirror, and quickly glance at the sideview mirror. All clear. No cars in sight. I put my blinker on and start to move over. 

All the sudden I hear the blaring noise of a horn that seemed to come from nowhere. I jerk the car back a little and a compact car angrily passes right by me. 

Where in the world did he come from? I didn't see him when I looked through my mirrors but I still missed him. He was in my blind spot - I couldn't see him.

Are You A Super Achiever?

I titled my book "Are You A Super Achiever?" because every time I asked someone if they thought they were a Super Achiever I'd alway get the same answer, "No".  They would take a look at their life and would say "No" automatically. 

Why is that? When you make an assessment of yourself, you quickly look at what happened in the past and what's happening in your life  right now, then quickly judge previous decisions. As soon as we want to try something new, something scares us back into our lane. We run right back into that blind spot when we think of ourselves being more than where our perceptions could take us. 

The thought of being called a Super Achiever frightens us. We rationalize by saying things like, "I'm just an ordinary person, and certainly not famous by a long shot". "I've failed at things I've tried before, but certainly don't want to try again".  Of course, I always hear, "I am too old or too young to do something great". Or even, "I don't even know what I want to do with my life". 

Why is it that our perceptions of ourselves always seem rooted in some core belief that we have about what we think we should be? That's fine if that belief makes your life bigger and better. Those are life expanding beliefs.

Watch Out For The Beliefs That Keep You In A Box

The beliefs which create a perimeter around us, which seem to define our self imposed limits on how far we can go in life, are the self-limiting ones.

The actual definition of a self limiting belief is this: self limiting beliefs are assumptions or perceptions that you've got about yourself and about the way the world works. These assumptions are “self-limiting”,  because in some way, they hold us back from achieving what we are truly capable of.

We all are actually more powerful than we can imagine, once we make up our minds to accomplish something we really want. 

These self-limiting beliefs are ones that keep us living in our self proclaimed bubble of safety and security. 

No one wants to step too far out there when they feel a strong sense of fear of failure or humility. That can be scary. Most people would rather settle for a life of mediocrity than to risk the pain of failing at something they really want.

What Do They Look Like?

These self-limiting beliefs usually come in two flavors. There is the more general type which is more global in nature. This type focuses on things like; the government is so corrupt that it's hard for the working man to get ahead these days. 

Other general beliefs could be around how the economic conditions are not good enough for me to step out there a start the business of my dreams. It seems a little too risky right now. 

The other type of limiting belief is of a more specific nature usually around the areas of family, friends, money, or personal relationships. It can sound something like; "Every person I meet seems to have an addiction problem. I must not be suited to have a great relationship". 

I've heard people say that they will never become financially wealthy because wealthy people are greedy and that's not what they want to become. They would rather be poor with integrity than to be rich and greedy. 

Although each sounds noble and maybe even plausible, neither one is true. So why don't we see it?

Living With The Blinders On

Why is it hard to see our limiting beliefs? One of the biggest reasons is the culprit called comfort. Our lives are built around the things that we feel comfortable with. Our comfortable routines become comfortable habits, and these habits seem to get us through. Our blinders are on. 

We only start looking beyond our comfort zone when a problem arises. When something becomes uncomfortable for us, we start searching for ways to relieve our pain. That's one way to start looking outside the box. 

Another way we can find a blind spot is when we are challenged by other individuals. We see ourselves one way, but an objective observer may see us totally different. When they confront us, that forces us to look differently at ourselves. 

If they can make us see that our perception of our behavior may be rooted in something other than what we believe to be true, our opportunity to break the bubble is here.

How To Break Free

What's The Payoff

Examining your deeply seated belief system seems like a lot of hard work. It is hard and uncomfortable to ask the probing questions that make you doubt yourself, but what's more painful? Feeling some temporary discomfort or missing out on living the vision you've always dreamed? 

We all have a blind spot that keeps us in the dark about what true capabilities we possess. We may have to use the probing light of questioning and self inspection to dig for the diamonds of greatness hiding underneath our surface. But if we persist, we will find an unrelenting strength that will help us fulfill our dreams. 

Doing the work of aligning your true beliefs with what you are really made of will change your life in ways you can only imagine. 

Take that magic wand and paint the picture that will produce a life of reality that's everything you ever wanted.