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