Jack Canfield's Success Principle #56, continued
All success starts in our minds. First, we must decide what we want. Next, we have to believe that we deserve it and that it's possible. Third, we must think about any success and visualize it as if we already have it. And finally, we must be willing to pay the price to achieve our goals through discipline and perseverance.
Most people never achieve financial success, because their beliefs limit them. Yesterday, we learned about our limiting beliefs that developed as a result of childhood sexual abuse. Today, we shift gears to take a look at how limiting beliefs can prevent us from achieving financial success. Jack identifies limiting beliefs, suggests steps for eliminating them, and then provides ideas for turning around those beliefs.
Identify your limimiting beliefs about money.
We may not even be aware that we have limiting beliefs about money. Many of them were probably instilled in our minds when we were children, just like the inappropriate ones we developed about love in the context of sexual abuse. The following is a list of typical limiting beliefs about money:
Money doesn't grow on trees.
You have to have money to make money.
Money is the root of all evil.
People with money are evil and unethical.
People with a lot of money are selfish.
You can't buy happiness.
It's impossible to go to heaven if you're rich.
That last belief on the list held me back for years. Jesus said, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven....I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matt 19:21, 24 NIV)
The point of Jesus' lesson was to make a rich man see that he was coveting others' possessions. By telling him to sell everything, Jesus pushed the guy to look at his sin. Jesus' message, if taken out of context, can be sadly misinterpreted to mean that Christians should not have wealth.
I was previously married to a millionaire who also happened to be an abuser. His actions made me come to the conclusion that all rich people are evil and don't deserve to get into heaven. I didn't want to be like him, so I developed the limiting belief that it's impossible to get into heaven if you're rich.
Joe had been taught the limiting belief that it was more godly to be poor than to have money. When the two of us got married, our limiting beliefs nearly destroyed us financially. They took us from a place of financial security to a point of living on groceries from a food bank and accepting hand-outs from the church.
God doesn't want us to be poor. He promises blessings throughout the Bible. One of God's dearest saints was Abraham, who eventually owned more land and possessions than we can imagine. God wants to bless each of us abundantly, just as he blessed childless Abraham, who ended up having more descendants than the stars in the sky.
Take three steps to turn around limiting beliefs.
It's possible to change our limiting beliefs with a simple three-step technique that Jack outlines. He suggests doing it with a partner or a group of people. Working with others can be far more powerful, not to mention, fun!
1) Write down the limiting belief.
For example, we can write down, If you're rich, you can't get into heaven.
2) Challenge, make fun of, or argue with the limiting belief.
We could brainstorm a list of new beliefs to challenge this old one. By making the ideas outrageous or silly, we can create a more powerful shift in our thinking. So, we can write out something new, such as:
*If you're rich, you can't live in a housing project.
*If you're rich, you can't get into the food bank.
*If you're rich, you aren't automatically limited spiritually.
*Some people with money may not get into heaven, but wealth can't keep me out.
Dave Ramsey teaches that money is nothing more than a tool. Like a hammer, we can use it to build something, or we can use it to smash in someone's head. The hammer isn't good or bad. Our use of it merely dictates the outcomes for us.
3) Create a positive turnaround statement.
When we are finished brainstorming, we can choose a positive statement that turns around our old beliefs. For instance, I may replace It's impossible to go to heaven if you're rich with It's possible for me to go to heaven after receiving unlimited wealth here on earth and sharing God's abundant blessings with others.
Like all of our goals, we need to write our new financial beliefs on index cards and add them to our stack. If we take time every day to read them aloud with intense emotion and imagine how we will feel, our money affirmations will come true.
Today's Challenge
If you haven't yet created personal affirmations about money, start today. Write down your financial dreams on index cards. Bring up images of checks in the mail, big paychecks, royalty checks, dividend checks, and cash in your hand. Visualize your ideal bank statements, stock reports, and retirement fund returns. Add your feelings to these visualizations, along with gratitude for already having these things.
Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
Showing posts with label limiting beliefs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label limiting beliefs. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Transcend Your Limiting Beliefs
Jack Canfield's Success Principle #33
We all hold beliefs that limit our success. They are thoughts that stop us from achieving our goals. Look at the following list of limiting beliefs to better understand what they are:
I'm not (smart, attractive, rich, old, or young) enough.
Women don't do that sort of thing.
They'd never choose me for this job.
Even if I don't like my job, I need to keep it for financial security.
Nothing I do is ever successful.
You can't get rich as a (writer, artist, poet, singer).
Understand that limiting beliefs lead to poor self-esteem.
Our lack of confidence begins with two limiting beliefs: 1) we are not capable of handling life's challenges; and 2) we are not worthy of love. If we are going to improve our low self-esteem so that we can achieve success, we must tackle these two limiting beliefs.
To overcome the belief that we can't handle challenges, we can look back to see where we did succeed when things were difficult. Remember the Victory Log? If we've written down our past successes and are reviewing them daily, we can combat limiting beliefs in this area of our minds.
Believing that we are worthy of love comes about by transforming our limiting beliefs into positive affirmations. Jack recommends a four-step process for changing our self-talk to create success.
Overcome any limiting belief with four steps.
Jack reminds us that having clearly identified goals will make it easier for us to alter our limiting beliefs. If we know where we're going, we can re-program our minds to help us get there.
Follow Jack's four steps to replace limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs (also known as positive affirmations). In the example below, I've used one of my limiting beliefs to help you understand this principle.
1) Identify the belief that you want to change.
When I was a child, my father and mother would say before we went into someone else's home, "Children should be seen and not heard." I never realized until I read The Success Principles how this created a limiting belief for me. This thought got programmed into my subconsciuos as, "I need to be quiet if I want to be loved." All of my life, I've been limited by what my son calls a Minnie Mouse voice. I always thought it was rude to be loud, so I spoke very softly.
2) Determine how the belief limits you.
Believing that it was rude for me to speak up has limited my abilities as a teacher, a dinner party conversationalist, a spouse, a friend, and public speaker. For years, people have been complaining that they can't hear me.
(3) Decide how you want to be, act, or feel.
I want to be able to speak up so that I can be heard. I never realized how important this was to me until I began writing. Much of my fiction is about women whose 'voices' have been stifled. Without even realizing it, I was silencing myself with my limiting belief that no one would love me if I spoke up.
(4) Create a turnaround statement.
We must replace each of our limiting beliefs with something Jack calls a turnaround statement. My limiting belief is, 'I need to be quiet if I want to be loved.' A new turnaround statement for me would be, 'I am confident speakig up about things that are important to me and enjoying the respect I earn for what I have to say.'
Our turnaround statements must be formatted as positive affirmations, which we learned about in Success Principle #10. Once we create a turnaround statement, we must repeat it to ourselves several times daily. Eventually, the repeated suggestion overrides the limiting belief.
As with all situations, prayer adds power to whatever we're trying to change. Jesus said, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matt 21:22) Turn your limiting beliefs into positive affirmations backed up with prayer, and watch what God can do!
Today's Challenge
Create a list of beliefs that are limiting you. Choose one and rewrite it on a 3 x 5 card as a turnaround statement (positive affirmation). Read it out loud to yourself throughout the day. Before long, you'll believe whatever you've written.
Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
We all hold beliefs that limit our success. They are thoughts that stop us from achieving our goals. Look at the following list of limiting beliefs to better understand what they are:
I'm not (smart, attractive, rich, old, or young) enough.
Women don't do that sort of thing.
They'd never choose me for this job.
Even if I don't like my job, I need to keep it for financial security.
Nothing I do is ever successful.
You can't get rich as a (writer, artist, poet, singer).
Understand that limiting beliefs lead to poor self-esteem.
Our lack of confidence begins with two limiting beliefs: 1) we are not capable of handling life's challenges; and 2) we are not worthy of love. If we are going to improve our low self-esteem so that we can achieve success, we must tackle these two limiting beliefs.
To overcome the belief that we can't handle challenges, we can look back to see where we did succeed when things were difficult. Remember the Victory Log? If we've written down our past successes and are reviewing them daily, we can combat limiting beliefs in this area of our minds.
Believing that we are worthy of love comes about by transforming our limiting beliefs into positive affirmations. Jack recommends a four-step process for changing our self-talk to create success.
Overcome any limiting belief with four steps.
Jack reminds us that having clearly identified goals will make it easier for us to alter our limiting beliefs. If we know where we're going, we can re-program our minds to help us get there.
Follow Jack's four steps to replace limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs (also known as positive affirmations). In the example below, I've used one of my limiting beliefs to help you understand this principle.
1) Identify the belief that you want to change.
When I was a child, my father and mother would say before we went into someone else's home, "Children should be seen and not heard." I never realized until I read The Success Principles how this created a limiting belief for me. This thought got programmed into my subconsciuos as, "I need to be quiet if I want to be loved." All of my life, I've been limited by what my son calls a Minnie Mouse voice. I always thought it was rude to be loud, so I spoke very softly.
2) Determine how the belief limits you.
Believing that it was rude for me to speak up has limited my abilities as a teacher, a dinner party conversationalist, a spouse, a friend, and public speaker. For years, people have been complaining that they can't hear me.
(3) Decide how you want to be, act, or feel.
I want to be able to speak up so that I can be heard. I never realized how important this was to me until I began writing. Much of my fiction is about women whose 'voices' have been stifled. Without even realizing it, I was silencing myself with my limiting belief that no one would love me if I spoke up.
(4) Create a turnaround statement.
We must replace each of our limiting beliefs with something Jack calls a turnaround statement. My limiting belief is, 'I need to be quiet if I want to be loved.' A new turnaround statement for me would be, 'I am confident speakig up about things that are important to me and enjoying the respect I earn for what I have to say.'
Our turnaround statements must be formatted as positive affirmations, which we learned about in Success Principle #10. Once we create a turnaround statement, we must repeat it to ourselves several times daily. Eventually, the repeated suggestion overrides the limiting belief.
As with all situations, prayer adds power to whatever we're trying to change. Jesus said, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matt 21:22) Turn your limiting beliefs into positive affirmations backed up with prayer, and watch what God can do!
Today's Challenge
Create a list of beliefs that are limiting you. Choose one and rewrite it on a 3 x 5 card as a turnaround statement (positive affirmation). Read it out loud to yourself throughout the day. Before long, you'll believe whatever you've written.
Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
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