How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs and Achieve Success

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Felix Tih, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Sometimes the only person holding you back is you. As Brian Tracy said, “There are no limits on what you can achieve with your life, except the limits you accept in your own mind.”

Limiting beliefs can hold you back from reaching your goals before you even get started. Fortunately, limiting beliefs can be overcome. Once you’re able to move past your own limiting thoughts, there’ll be nothing holding you back from doing incredible things. In this article, we’ll share a few strategies to help you overcome limiting beliefs.

What Are Limiting Beliefs?

Limiting beliefs are thoughts that you usually have about yourself that you believe to be true. These thoughts tend to be opinions you hold about yourself, but in your mind, you believe that they are absolute and unchangeable.

Examples of limiting beliefs include:

I’m not good enough.

I’m not smart enough.

I don’t have any talents.

I’ll probably fail.

I have to do what others want me to.

I’m too far behind to start now.

I’m too old or too young

Self-limiting beliefs can take over your mindset to the point that you don’t just think them – they become who you are. You don’t take risks or make any changes, because you automatically believe you won’t be successful.

These beliefs are not based on truth or fact but are instead perceptions or assumptions that you have about yourself, others, or the world in general. Even though these thoughts aren’t necessarily true, they’re powerful enough to keep you from reaching your full potential.

Causes of Limiting Beliefs

There are many causes of self-limiting beliefs. Some are a result of your upbringing, culture, or environment, while others are just aspects of your personality. If you’re raised in a family or culture that doesn’t encourage you to believe in yourself or aim for your goals, then you’ll often adopt that mentality as well.

Society can also cause self-limiting beliefs. If you’re from a certain social group, then you may not be given as many opportunities as others and people may not expect as much from you. When you’re treated this way from a young age, you begin to internalize these beliefs until the thoughts become your own voice.

If you experienced some type of trauma in your life, it can cause self-limiting beliefs. These beliefs can be particularly difficult to overcome since they’re usually linked to such an impactful event.

Sometimes self-limiting beliefs are intrinsic to your personality. Some people are born with confidence, but others have to develop confidence over time. Even if you’re born with a timid personality, you can change your way of thinking.

How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs

Now that you understand what self-limiting beliefs are and how they evolve, how do you overcome them? It’s not easy to completely change your mindset, especially if it’s a long-held belief. But if you can push beyond your limiting thoughts, the sky’s the limit as to what you can achieve. Below are some of the best strategies to overcome limiting beliefs.

Figure Out What’s Holding You Back

As stated above, there are many types of limiting beliefs and reasons they exist. Your first step to moving past these beliefs is to figure out what’s holding you back.

Spend some time in self-reflection. Think back on your life and how you developed your mindset. Also, root out the main thoughts that pop up every time you think about working toward a goal. What are the thoughts that make you let go of your dreams?

Once you’ve figured out your limiting beliefs and how you developed them, you’ll be much better equipped to move past them. Sometimes just recognizing something and giving it a name is enough for you to defeat it.

Goal-Setting

Once you know what’s holding you back, it’s time to set some goals. You may think you already know your goals, but there’s more to goal-setting than just having an idea of what you want.

You should start with a long-term goal, such as start a business. While long-term goals are important, they’re usually broad or vague and can be overwhelming when you set out to achieve them.

To avoid overwhelm, take your long-term goal and break it down into much smaller, actionable steps. Make the first few steps easy to accomplish, so you’ll get some wins early on to build up your confidence.

Stay Focused

Once you have your goals in place, stay focused on them. Don’t let your limiting beliefs get in the way. If you stay focused on completing the next task, you won’t have time to let limiting beliefs take over. Don’t think too much about the overall goal, because that’s when doubt starts to creep in. Instead, focus on the smaller tasks that you can manage.

Adopt a Positive Self-Image

As you start to work through each of your smaller goals, you should start to gain some confidence in yourself. The more you accomplish, the more you believe you can do. Your self-image is important. If you see yourself as a winner, you will win.

Become Unstoppable

Once you accomplish your first few goals, you’ll really start to move. When you’ve had a few successes, it’s much easier to keep going when things get challenging. Whereas before, you might have stopped when things got tough, you’ll now be able to see a challenge as a problem to solve, instead of a reason to give up.

Hire a Life Coach

Overcoming your self-limiting beliefs alone can be difficult. It’s challenging to let go of those types of thoughts, especially since they’re so ingrained in how you see yourself.

If you want to get past your self-limiting beliefs but are struggling to do it on your own, hiring a life coach can make all the difference. A life coach can help you understand your self-limiting beliefs and move past them. They can help you discover your strengths and dispel some of the assumptions you have about yourself.

Once you can let go of your self-limiting beliefs, nothing can stop you from reaching your goals.