YOUR BELIEFS SHAPE YOU
I bet you have a pretty clear idea of what you would like to change or improve in your life, such as becoming more motivated, determined or starting you own business, and you’ve looked closely at your options. You may have even put together a plan, but somehow you never really got it going. You feel frustrated; you know the plan is a good one and you really want to put the plan into action. But you find yourself thinking of reasons not to start, procrastinating, or getting discouraged along the way. You tell yourself you do not have time or that you need to do other things first.
What’s going on? Why are you stuck? Are you just weak or lazy? I’d guess you’ve beaten yourself up on this account any number of times in your life. The good news is that the reason you’re blocked may have nothing to do with weakness or laziness, or any other nasty trait you choose to label yourself with. You may well be blocked because deep down, maybe you don’t believe you’re capable of executing your plan. Or even worse, you don’t really believe that you deserve to be happier than you are at the moment.
You may lack resources and your plan might be no more than a few scribbles on the back of a napkin, yet if your motivation is right and you really believe you can do it, you can make your plan happen. History is full of men and women who have defied the odds and overcome seemingly impossible obstacles to reach their goals and these people all have one thing in common – an unshakable belief that they are exactly the right person at exactly the right moment in time to achieve whatever they set out to do.
In life coaching, a belief is simply a feeling of conviction about something, specifically about yourself – and strong positive beliefs about something are the foundation for action. Holding negative beliefs or beliefs that no longer serve you well have the opposite effect and keeps you stuck. Your inner critic specializes in these destructive beliefs and can produce them at the drop of a hat.
Beliefs can be tricky things; they always appear to be logical and watertight – that’s their nature – but whole communities have built their worldview based on beliefs that were later proven wrong. For example, the world isn’t flat, but people used to believe that it was and wasted a lot of energy in elaborate strategies to avoid falling off.
Some of the greatest achievements in history have been considered impossible.
Whenever you feel you can’t over-come your limiting beliefs, remember this;
“They said it couldn’t be done.”
Thomas Edison persisted in his many thousand attempts to invent the light bulb in the face of skeptics who said that gas light was the only feasible option.
Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile despite the medical experts who said the human body was not capable of the feat.
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.