Many people want to find a way to create a success and live the best life they can live – a life with success, money, strong relationships, or some other dream. Getting on the path to your dreams sometimes requires a shift in mindset, and one such shift is removing limiting beliefs. In this post, I’ll share how you can change your limiting beliefs and mindset to help you get on the path to living your dream life.
Having control of your mind and living with a positive outlook on life is so helpful on the path to success. Working on your skills and abilities is important for success, but having confidence in yourself is equally, if not more, important.
How to you become more confident and how can you have confidence in yourself?
One thing which always limits us is our limiting beliefs. Do you believe you are enough? Do you believe you can do it? Or, do you think you can’t do it?
If you believe you can do it, then you’ll be in a better position to accomplish your goals. Having confidence in yourself is so important, but it’s very hard to grow confidence when trying to reach a huge goal.
So, how can we overcome our limiting beliefs and achieve our goals? First, what are limiting beliefs, and how are they holding us back? How can we grow and reach success?
In this post, I’ll answer these questions and by the end, hopefully you’ll have an action plan to gain confidence and overcome your limiting beliefs.
What are Limiting Beliefs and How Do They Hold You Back?
The realization that it is your subconscious that contains all those memories, is what helps you to have a greater consciousness and to make a change in thoughts and behavior that prevents our false beliefs, negative emotions and self-destructive behaviors from directing our destiny. Our destiny is now determined by knowing each other well enough to take effective action in our daily lives.
These negative ideas translate into limiting beliefs, which are those things that you inadvertently say to yourself to justify what is happening in your life, to stop yourself from making a change or simply to settle for what you currently have. This is all an internal dialogue, something now called the inner critic or your negative inner talk.
Most of these limiting beliefs begin with the phrases “I can’t” and “I’m not.” They are based on our dreams, emotions and relationships. Limiting beliefs are irrational and prevent us from living our lives better! Do you want to live that life that you admire and dream of?
11 Simple Ways to Change Your Limiting Beliefs and Create the Life You Want to Live
Creating the life you want and deserve is not easy. I’ve been trying to create a life for myself that is full of success for many years and still am in search of what is right for me.
However, creating a life which is fulfilling and full of promise and hope is easier with the right mindset.
Getting into the right mindset can be done by changing your limiting beliefs, using the power of positive thinking and affirmations to affect change in your life, and living intentionally.
Below are 11 simple ways and strategies you can use to change your limiting beliefs and create the life you want and deserve to have. You can click on the links below to go directly to a detailed section of the strategy on this page, or continue scrolling to read the sections in order.
- Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
- Change the Way You View Errors
- Believe in Yourself
- Love Yourself
- Drop the Victim Mentality
- Stop Blaming Others
- Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Thoughts
- Recognize Your Strengths
- Set Goals for the Future
- Pursue Your Goals and Dreams with All Your Might
- Understand Failures Will Happen
Let’s dive deeper into each of these steps to change your mindset and limiting beliefs.
1. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others and Start Appreciating Yourself
It’s human nature to look around and compare ourselves to our peers. One of the most common beliefs is that you need to keep up with your peers, and if you aren’t, then you are failing at life.
Comparison is a theft of happiness, and constantly comparing yourself to others is a recipe for disaster.
This habit of continually comparing yourself to other people arises from low self-esteem, from not knowing your own worth, and from lacking self-confidence. These constant feelings make us fail to recognize our true potential, and make us feel defeated even before starting the race.
One of the things that can help you eliminate this belief is working on yourself, developing a confidence in yourself that prevents you from constantly comparing yourself to others.
Realize that everyone is on their own path and you are able to write your own story. You can create the life you want, and it will be different than everyone else.
Start celebrating yourself!
Remember all the things you have accomplished, focus on your own successes and on your own path. Regardless of whether or not you are celebrated, the most important thing you can do today is to start celebrating yourself.
Accept and celebrate your own achievements, successes and even your own failures. When you are happy with yours, you can be happy with the success of others.
When you are happy for the success of others, you won’t be worried about comparing and you will be able to continue to improve and go down your own path.
2. Change the Way in How You View Errors and Mistakes
One of the worst things you can do is to tell yourself you are a failure. Thinking you are a failure based on something that happened in the past is one of the simplest ways to take away the power to create your life as you wish.
We are humans, and humans are not perfect. Mistakes will happen – it’s part of the process of growth and accomplishment.
How you view mistakes and errors will determine how you proceed – are they barriers and the end of the road, or are they just a speed bump?
We need to see mistakes as opportunities to grow. Making mistakes is something we should avoid, but if they happen, it’s time to take advantage of the situation to analyze what went wrong and what went right.
After an error, give yourself the opportunity to find out if there are things you can do to change or take advantage of that event.
It is this reflection where growth happens because you will know that after this mistake, you’ll be back on the right path.
3. Believe and Trust in Yourself
When you say “I can’t,” “I’m not capable,” “It never works out for me,” “I never can…”, “I’m not meant to be happy or successful…” you’re limiting yourself to everything you can do. You are telling yourself who you are and that you are not capable of being, doing or having.
These negative thoughts are affecting your subconscious mind, and they restrict you from getting to your goals.
If you instead replace those negative thoughts with positive thoughts, you will start creating a persona within who accomplishes everything in life.
What you say about yourself and what you think you can achieve is what you constantly see in your life, because you are constantly creating it. The moment when you justify and accept that you cannot stop making the effort to change your situation.
Don’t let these limiting beliefs run your life and keep you from achieving what you really are capable of.
4. Love Yourself Because You Deserve Love
I firmly believe that the relationship you have with others is a reflection of the relationship you have with yourself.
If you don’t love yourself, you can’t expect others to love you. If you don’t respect yourself, the others won’t.
We cannot go through life looking for love on the outside, when it’s first very important to love yourself deeply. After you love yourself, you can then share that love with someone else. Through this self-love, we create healthier and deeper relationships with other people.
The only way we can free ourselves from this limiting belief of not loving ourselves is to work on personal development and growth.
Through working on yourself, you will develop love for yourself and begin to affirm that you deserve love, you deserve respect, and you deserve the best that life has to offer.
5. Drop the Victim Mentality
Here’s a belief I have which I will never let go of: I’m in control of my life and I’m the only person who can make positive changes for myself.
The government, my boss, my friends, my family – no one can change my life for the better. I can ask for advice, I can ask for help, but these actions need to come from ME and from believing in myself.
I’m responsible for my life and I need to be the one out there taking action. I’m choosing to be the VICTOR, not a VICTIM in any moment.
When you put yourself in a victim role you take away the possibility of solving or changing your life. Personal development is about accepting that you have the responsibility
You are responsible if you decide to suffer, you decide if you want to stay in the situation you are in right now. No matter what happens to you in life, remember you always have total control over how you feel, how you react to the situations that arise. When you accept this power, you discover that your outlook on life will change dramatically.
People are quick to blame others for their misfortune. They tell themselves that they cannot do something because of an external condition.
For example, they say “I can’t get a job because companies aren’t hiring.” This is simply blaming other conditions on your own sad situation. This is a limiting belief that quickly becomes a habit. The way to eliminate it is to stop it at once.
Take responsibility for your situation and if you don’t like it, do something about it.
6. Stop Blaming Others for Your Failures
Sometimes in life, accidents happen. Unfortunate situations arise where we had nothing to do with it, and now we have to clean up the mess.
In some cases, you have to suffer for something due to the action or inaction of someone else.
This leads to another very common false belief – “It’s not my fault – it’s everyone else’s fault!”
While it might not be your fault, how you deal with the situation is completely on you.
Constantly thinking that someone else is to blame for something that happens in your life becomes a habit that takes away the power to make a change.
No one else can change your situation, no one else can decide for you. Only you have that power.
7. Replace Negative Thoughts and Beliefs with Positive Thoughts
The way we think affects the way we see the world. Any limitation in our mindset and thoughts results in limitations in our reality.
The way we think is determined by our past experiences, but it’s completely possible to rewire and realign your thoughts to drive results and accomplish more.
Doing affirmations, practicing positive self-talk and celebrating your successes are all ways to think in a positive way.
Saying “I’m a success”, “I can do anything”, “I can learn to become more”, “I can do better”, are all great first steps in positive thinking.
Mindset is everything and you can do it.
Be brave enough to chart your own path and you will find your fortune there.
8. Recognize Your Strengths and Work on Yourself and Abilities
What are your strengths? What are you good at? Are you an expert in anything?
We are all good at something.
The problem is many times, we want to focus on our failures and weaknesses.
While it’s important to improve the things we aren’t good at, we need to celebrate and work to maximize the time spent doing what makes us great.
If you paid more attention to what you like, what you are capable of doing and all your skills, you would be able to feel much better about yourself, feel confident and sure of yourself.
Being more self-aware is very important in life, and while it’s good to work on your weakness and become more well rounded, you also have to understand that your strengths are what will take you the farthest in life.
9. Create Goals and Live Intentionally
Living intentionally is how you will create change and become the person you want to become in life.
First, it starts with asking yourself a number of questions:
- What do you want in life? What would make you happy?
- Who do you want to spend your time with?
- What’s keeping you from living your best life? Is it money, a job, a house, a car, etc.?
After figuring out what you want in life, it’s time to set goals and start working on your dream.
There are many people who simply don’t have the life they want because they don’t know it or don’t want to. It is as if they are afraid of being disappointed for not achieving it, or for fear of being rejected and then they get used to not asking. This results in a life where you are not satisfied with yourself or with life.
Make a habit of asking yourself what you want, what you want to achieve right now. Set objectives and goals that gradually open up the horizon for you.
10. Pursue Your Goals and Dreams With All Your Willpower
Once you have your game plan, it’s time to attack it will all your willpower.
Are you going to be average, or are you going to be great? Are you going to be a victim, or a victor? Do you have what it takes?
The answer to these questions is YES – you can accomplish your goals and dreams.
You have the energy, power and potential to do anything you want in life.
If you don’t give it your all, you are letting yourself down. If you don’t go for greatness, you’ll be settling for average or worse.
Accepting mediocrity affects you deeply, because inside you know that you want to be, do or achieve something else in your life.
Eliminate this belief by being aware that your dreams can come true, of course you will have to do something to achieve it, change your beliefs, believe in yourself and motivate yourself along the way, but trust that you can achieve it.
If you fail, if you fall, trust that it is part of the way. No matter how long it takes you, just chasing your dreams will make you feel much more fulfilled than if you stayed where you are. Failures are only part of the process. When you fall, you get up again, and try again with even more desire. This is how we reach the goal.
Give it your all and you’ll be closer each day to your goal.
11. Understand Failures Will Happen, But You Can Bounce Back
Without failure, there is no success. If you achieved success in everything you did, where would the growth be? How would that be a great story?
Failure and struggle is part of human nature, and overcoming that struggle is how you grow and become better.
Being honest with you, setbacks happen and they suck. I’ve had injuries in sports where I had to sit out for some time – it sucked and it made me thankful for the times I was able to play. It made me reassess my game and be smarter with my head.
However, when I recovered, I was rested and ready to give it my all, and I started playing better than before.
You can bounce back from any mistake and get back on the road to success. You are capable of achieving anything and it’s important to understand that failure is temporary.
Get on the Path to Success and Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs
Do you want success in your life? If you are like me, you do and you will be willing to work and grind for your goals.
Gaining confidence in yourself is one of the steps to achieving these goals and to do this, part of it will be overcoming your limiting beliefs and replacing those beliefs with positive thoughts.
You are enough and you are capable of doing anything you want in life.
I hope this article has given you some good food for thought and has given you a game plan for improving your mindset.
Readers: what are some limiting beliefs you have? How are you overcoming those limiting beliefs?