How to Bust Your Self Limiting Beliefs

by Pam Solberg-Tapper

Are you holding yourself back from achieving your goals and dreams? I believe that each of us can accomplish things far beyond what we deem we are capable of. The problem is that our self limiting beliefs often side track us from getting what we desire.

A self limiting belief is a group of thought processes and feelings that causes us to maintain the status quo in our lives.

There are many words to describe this – inner critic, comfort zone, saboteur, negative self talk, and self doubt. All of these take away our confidence and limit us from moving forward to accomplish what we want.

For many years I gave into my self limiting beliefs because I didn’t realize that they were running me. I played life safe knowing that I had more potential but didn’t have the confidence to go after my dreams. Learning about self limiting beliefs has been a game changer for me. I now own a successful executive coaching/leadership training business and have run marathons all over the world. Recently I became the 17th woman in the world who has run a marathon on all 7 Continents plus the North Pole – Marathon Grand Slam Club .

How to determine when your Self Limiting Beliefs are running you:

• There is a lot of struggle – “this will be hard”
• You lack confidence in yourself
• You compare yourself to others and convince yourself that they are better
• You are stuck by a seemingly insurmountable barrier
• The same issue presents itself over and over
• You use words such as “I can’t”, “I need to”, or “I have to” vs. “I can” ,“I will”, or “I want to”
• There is a fear of failure or “What will people think?”
• You know that you are selling yourself short

Here are some ways to bust Self Limiting Beliefs:

• Future Pull – think of your vision or goal and focus on what it would be like to accomplish it. Let yourself feel the joy and pride of completing your objective.
• Antidote – remember a past accomplishment where you were successful and tell yourself “I made it though that so I can make it through this.” Example: “I gave up smoking – I can certainly do this” or “If I can run a marathon, this will be easy.”
• Imagination – think of putting your inner critic in a balloon and pop it, or melting away like the wicked witch of the north, or send it off on a long vacation.
• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – intentionally stretch beyond the inertia of self limiting beliefs and just do it.
• Challenge Yourself – “I am bigger than this barrier,” or “I have it within me to move beyond this doubt.”
• Own It – act like you are already there.
• Game On – see yourself on the playing field playing your best and winning the game.

I’ve used these techniques successfully and help my coaching clients use them too. I suggest you try them to give yourself the confidence you need to achieve your goals and dreams.