The 5 Steps to Transforming Your Limiting Beliefs
OPENING UP TO THE UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES
Identifying your limiting beliefs is only the first step in lasting transformation. Being aware of your beliefs does provide some insight about how to think differently about them. However, your limited beliefs are usually pretty rooted in your past history and experiences, and the neural pathways of your brain. There is often a lot of emotional charge behind them as well, which can make it challenging to think, feel and act differently. The deeper the belief and if they are rooted in your youngest experiences, the more difficult and longer this process would be to change through just pure insight.
As you work through this belief transformation process it’s important you remain observant and curious. You must be open to the possibilities, you must welcome new perspectives, and you must accept alternate viewpoints.
Being receptive and willing to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances lies at the cornerstone of any change that you would like to make. This is especially true when it comes to transforming your limiting beliefs.
Step 1: Choose Your Desired Outcome
Your very first step is to choose your desired outcome. This will help you gain clarity about what it is you would like to change. Ask yourself:
What goals would I like to achieve?
What kind of person would l ideally like to become?
What is it specifically that I would like to change?
What specific beliefs are not working for me?
What beliefs are preventing me from achieving my desired outcomes?
Once you are clear about the limiting beliefs that are holding you back, you can move to step two of this process.
Step 2: Question Your Limiting Beliefs
It’s important to keep in mind that these references were only once ideas, that became opinions, and later came together to form your beliefs. As such, they aren’t real. They are of course real for you, but that’s only your perspective. Change your perspective and opinion about them, and you will likewise throw doubt on your limiting beliefs.
And that is precisely what you’re going to do right now. You are going to throw doubt upon these beliefs from all possible angles.
Here are some questions to get you started on this process. This list will hopefully get you going, but you should certainly add your own questions as you move through this process.
Throw doubt on your limiting belief by asking yourself:
Is this belief really true?
Have I always believed this?
Was there a time when I didn’t believe this?
What evidence is there that disproves this limiting belief?
What’s the exact opposite way of thinking about this belief? How is this helpful?
What’s funny about this belief? What’s strange about this belief? What’s embarrassing about this belief?
Is this belief helping me get what I want most in life? Will it help me reach my goals?
How does the opposite of what I believe work for other people? How is this of value?
How would I think about this belief if I was Albert Einstein? Bugs Bunny? Harry Potter? A child? An entrepreneur? A rock? An elephant? An ant?
Some of these questions might seem silly and strange. However, they are designed to help you expand your perspective and the possibilities of your situation.
These questions are designed to encourage you to think outside the box. They are designed to make you feel a little uncomfortable, and they are, of course, designed to help shift how you think about your limiting belief.
The more effort you put into answering these questions, the more doubt you will throw on your limiting belief, and the faster you will move through this belief transformation process.
Step 3: Choose a New Empowering Belief to Adopt
You must now choose a new empowering belief that you would like to use moving forward.
The one guiding principle that you must follow here is to make sure that this new belief is believable. If it’s not believable, then you will, unfortunately, fail to condition it into your psyche.
To unlock this new empowering belief, take into consideration the goal that you would like to achieve, the person that you would want to become, and the core values you would like to uphold, then ask yourself the following set of questions from a third person’s perspective:
What would this person likely believe while in pursuit of this goal?
What would this person believe about themselves?
What would this person believe about their goal?
What’s their attitude like? How do they think about this goal?
What would this person believe after having achieved their goal?
How would they think about the obstacles they confront along their journey?
What would they believe if they had to achieve this goal again for a second time?
Now, consider the advantages of this belief and how it could potentially help improve your life and circumstances. Ask yourself:
What are the benefits of using this new belief?
How will this new belief help me to attain my goals?
How will this belief change my life for the better?
How will this belief help me in the short-term and in the long-term?
How will all this make me feel about myself?
To what extent is this belief likely to empower me moving forward?
Why is all this important? What does all this really mean?
The more reasons you can find, the more motivation you will have to change your old patterns of behavior and replace them with new empowering belief systems.
Step 4: Strengthen Your New Empowering Belief
Now, let’s look at ways you can potentially strengthen this new empowering belief.
Strengthening a belief requires taking into consideration ways you could build upon the references that support this new belief. Ask yourself:
What kinds of behaviors, decisions and actions could help me strengthen this belief?
What habits and/or rituals could help me strengthen this belief?
What famous quotes could potentially help me strengthen this belief?
Are there any symbols I could use that might help me strengthen this belief?
Could I create a slogan for myself that might help me strengthen this belief?
Are there any stories that support the philosophy behind this new empowering belief?
What about role models? Are there any role models I could turn to that could help me strengthen this belief?
There are many ideas here that will help you strengthen your new belief. One of the most practical ideas involves simply finding a handful of quotes that support the philosophy behind your new empowering belief.
Write these quotes down on a piece of paper and keep them in your pocket. Then, whenever you feel yourself indulging in your old limiting belief, take some time to read over these quotes. This will help you get back on track. It’s as easy as that. And what’s more, each time you read these quotes you build stronger references that will help support your new empowering belief moving forward.
Likewise keep an eye out for stories, documentaries, and films that support the philosophy behind your empowering belief. Keep them listed on that sheet of paper as well, then turn to these stories for some added insight, direction, and inspiration.
Working through the belief transformation process comes down to building solid references that help support your new empowering belief. The more references you are able to collect, the stronger your new belief will become, and this will subsequently weaken your old limiting belief.
Just keep building the evidence against your limiting belief and in favor of your empowering belief. Once the evidence begins to overwhelmingly support your empowering belief, that is when the tables will turn, and your mindset will permanently shift.
Step 5: Progressively Condition Your New Belief
Having committed yourself to this new empowering belief, it’s now time to progressively condition this new belief into your nervous system. And there are some ways you can do this.
First of all, you can use the process of visualization to help condition this new belief into your nervous system. Just spend time daily visualizing yourself in your imagination using this new way of thinking in your day-to-day undertakings. Take note of the actions you take, the decisions you make, how you talk to yourself, how you speak to others, etc. Think about your new attitude and the results that this new belief is helping you to manifest in your life.
You are in essence imagining a new and better you in your minds-eye and then transferring the “new you” from your imagination into the physical world.
Everything first begins in your imagination and then gets transferred across into the real world. Doing things this way will help you to develop the self-confidence you need to work with this new belief.
Secondly, you can use the process of anchoring to condition this new belief into your nervous system. This primarily involves anchoring a physical sensation to your body that will automatically allow you to get into an optimal state-of-mind that is congruent with your new empowering belief.
Thirdly, you can condition this new belief into your nervous system by making some helpful adjustments to your submodalities. These modifications can help add more emotional firepower to your new belief. This will increase the strength of the references that help support this belief.
Next, you can use a technique known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This method works for some people but may not work for all people. It involves tapping on end points of the body’s energy meridians. This tapping process can help you overcome your limiting beliefs and habits.
Finally, you might want to consider modeling or emulating other people who are actively living this empowering belief. Get to know these people and find out what makes them tick.
But what if these people are just not accessible? Then learn all you can about them from books, documentaries, films, interviews, etc. Find out why they do what they do, and also how they do it. Then emulate them and model their decisions and actions. This will hopefully help you build even more references that support your new belief.
In the end, what’s most important is reminding yourself about the value of this new belief and how it will help improve your life moving forward.
“Transformation itself isn’t a joy. The joy is in the freedom that arrives just past the threshold. It rushes through. Released like rain. ”