How to Identify your Self-Limiting Beliefs

Have you ever heard yourself say that you can't or won’t do something, like it’s a rule that you need to live by? Does this rule limit your growth or happiness? You might be playing into your self-limiting beliefs! These are beliefs that you assume to be true only because you’ve held them for so long that you haven’t bothered to question them. How do you identify your self-limiting beliefs?

Listen to and observe yourself.

To identify your self-limiting beliefs, to listen very carefully to how you communicate with yourself and others. What statements do you hear yourself say? Are these based on perceptions rather than evidence? Do they form a behaviour pattern for you? What effect does this pattern have on your life? Does it limit your choices to a very small subset of life’s possibilities?

Question your statements and your beliefs.

Don’t believe everything you think. For example, if you say that you have to take care of something for someone else, is this a self-imposed obligation? Is it based on a belief that something bad will happen if you don’t do it? Is your self-worth conditional on doing the task? If this was a rule that you've lived by so far, does it still make sense for you to hold onto this rule today? If you can't defend your belief when you question it, it may be time to let it go.

Changing your thinking changes your behaviour.

You can change your thinking by making different choices. Your choices lead you to your actions. Responding to your past beliefs with “where did that come from?” is the first step to opening up to possibilities rather than living within self-imposed limits. Uncovering your self-limiting beliefs opens up new ways of thinking and being. When you think differently, you behave differently. Would you rather be stuck within the limits of your old beliefs or open yourself up to new possibilities?