What is belief?

What is belief?

 What are self-limiting beliefs, and how do you successfully overcome them?

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"I am very old." "I don't have enough experience." "Probably someone else did this."

These are just a few examples of self-limiting beliefs that can prevent you from achieving your goals at work or in life. There are a lot of limiting beliefs out there, and you probably have some of them - we all are. So, read on to find out more about what self-limiting beliefs are, learn about some examples of them, and most importantly, we'll go over the process of identifying limiting beliefs and how to overcome them.

self limiting beliefs

Self-limiting beliefs may hold you back from achieving your goals at work or in life. (Image credit: Envato Elements)
This may be an effective exercise for you; If you are trying to reach certain goals that matter to you and fail to achieve them, it may be due to self-limiting beliefs, and even worse, you may not even be aware that you have these beliefs, let alone know how to overcome them. So, if you're ready to take a big step forward in achieving what's important to you, let's start by looking at what are the limiting beliefs.

1. What are self-limiting beliefs?

Simply put, self-limiting beliefs are assumptions or perceptions you have about yourself and the way the world is. These assumptions are "self-limiting" because in some way they hold you back from achieving what you are capable of achieving. This is a quick overview, but let's get into the details of the term a bit more by examining each of its elements, starting with what beliefs are and how they are formed.

How are your beliefs formed?
We begin to form beliefs about the world and our place in it from early childhood. Our brains are very good at identifying patterns and making connections, so we are constantly processing the torrent of information about the world around us and using it to form beliefs. In general, the purpose of belief formation is to help us make sense of the world and stay safe. These beliefs are built in early childhood usually based on our own experiences, as well as shaped by our parents or other influential figures in our lives. For example: if I hit someone, I will be punished; So it must be bad to hit people, and if you say "excuse me" and "thank you" I get a reward; So it must be a good thing to be polite. As we get older we begin to form more complex beliefs and are able to glean them from a wider range of sources such as books, movies, TV commercials, the behavior of our peers, etc. However, the basic beliefs we formed as young children can be very influential, and we often stick to our old beliefs even when we come across new information or interpretations.

For example: A young boy whose parents work hard and are often away from home may form the belief: “I'm not good enough for them to want to be with me.” He may later understand that his parents work hard for many reasons, including their love and desire for him. In providing what he needs, but that previous belief may be so deeply ingrained that he continues to cling to it. On the one hand, this is because we do not like to be wrong, and once we have a belief formed, we tend to look for more evidence to support it and exclude evidence that contradicts it. This gives us a firm foundation for understanding the world that otherwise might be very confusing, but it also means that it can be difficult to let go of our beliefs, even if they hold us back.

Why do some beliefs become self-limiting?

Well, as we just learned, the process of forming beliefs begins early in our lives, and once formed, they are largely resistant to change. This goes a long way towards explaining why so many of our beliefs are limiting. The patterns we noticed as children that helped us navigate in kindergarten or the school playground may no longer serve us as adults. If you grew up in an aggressive or neglectful environment it should be clear that you will have many negative beliefs about yourself, but even if you grew up in a loving home, the result may also be that you have limiting beliefs. Your parents who support you and come to your defense from everyone who tries to attack you on the field may leave you believing that you are unable to solve your problems on your own, and excessive praise may lead you to believe that the praise is not credible. Beliefs are not facts, they may or may not be true or helpful, but they still govern the way we act in life. If we think we're not good enough, we won't ask for a promotion — and seeing someone else get it before us will reinforce that belief. So, beliefs like that are self-limiting; They limit our horizons and hold us back from doing the things we want to do.

2. Examples of limiting beliefs in business
Well, enough of our childhood talk. Now that we have an idea of where beliefs come from and how some of them can be limiting, let's step into the adult world and look at the real impact of self-limiting beliefs when it comes to achieving goals—especially in the workplace. Beliefs lead to action, or in some cases to inaction, and we saw an example of that at the end of the last section on the lost promotion. Let's look at some examples of self-limiting beliefs that may be holding you back from achieving success in the workplace.