In a recent article, I described how our belief systems regarding self-worth are under assault from a very early age. In fact, by the time we reach age 18, we each withstand approximately 180,000 negative personal remarks! With such bitter roots running deep, it’s little wonder, then, that our self-confidence can be fragile. But I also noted that even in the face of self-limiting beliefs and constant negative self-talk, you can stop this BS cold and condition yourself to accomplish great things! I discuss this in detail in my e-book, Get Out of Your Way, but here is a quick look at how you can banish the BS and design your NEW belief system:
Five New Beliefs
Here is a simple mental exercise to help you define who you want to be, instead of dwelling on who you’ve been programmed to think you are. For this to work well, you’ll need to temporarily suspend any fearful or pessimistic thinking long enough to answer the following questions in detail. Write your answers down.
- What do you want to believe about yourself? More than that, what would you have to believe about yourself in order to create the life of your dreams? (Now is the time to turn off your analytical brain and turn on the dreamer inside you.)
- What do you want your life to look like, sound like, and feel like? Forget about what you think is possible or practical. If you had a magic wand and could have whatever you wanted, what would it be? What would you wish for? What kind of life would you wish for?
- How do you want to feel about yourself? What could you accomplish if you had no fear or if you absolutely could not fail?
- If things would work out for you from now on, and you could have whatever you wanted, what would a day in your new life be like?
- If you were to truly believe in yourself and your own worthiness right now, what immediate changes would you begin to make in your life? What is the first step you would take?
Building on these answers, conjure up Five New Beliefs you would have to believe about yourself to be able to attain and experience all the things you just imagined. Write down these new, empowering beliefs. It’s not necessary that you actually believe these ideas yet; just write them down, and we’ll cement them as we go along. Your notebook page entries might look something like this:
- “I AM ________________________________________________!”
- “I AM ________________________________________________!”
- “I AM ________________________________________________!”
- “I AM ________________________________________________!”
- “I AM ________________________________________________!”
Reinforcing Your New Beliefs
Now that your absolutely possible new life direction is becoming clearer and more specific, it’s time to unconsciously reinforce the new beliefs that will take you there with a new exercise. Take your time and play out this exercise in your imagination with as much detail as possible:
Imagine a chalkboard – a chalkboard directly connected to your unconscious, where your self-limiting beliefs are stored. Sit quietly with your thoughts for a moment, and imagine that a belief that’s been holding you back begins to surface from your unconscious. Allow it to appear on the chalkboard of your mind now. In your notebook, write down this self-limiting belief.
“I_______________________________.”
Now ask yourself: “Is this idea helping me grow? Do I still want to continue supporting such an idea?” If the answer is no, imagine yourself marching up to that chalkboard with great confidence. Grab the largest eraser you can find and wipe that belief from the chalkboard. As you eliminate it from the board, it also gets eliminated from your belief system! If the words resist, get creative and resourceful. (Sometimes these words will try to scare you into continuing to support them. They want to keep you afraid, because they know if you realize that you’re the one with the true power, they’re done for!) But with the chalkboard clean and the self-limiting belief gone, the game is up! You do realize you have the power now.
If the words can’t erase cleanly in your mind – or if they start to reappear, step up to that chalkboard with a flamethrower. Torch that baby! Melt those BS words right off the board! Watch those old fears fade out into a puff of smoke. Picture it disappearing like a piece of paper thrown into a bonfire; it lights quickly, folds in on itself, turns into a piece of ash, and then floats away on a breeze. Imagine the same thing happening to that old self-limiting belief.
Before we move on, go back to that self-limiting belief you jotted down a moment ago and scratch it out with your pen. Then write “BS!” on top of it. Going through this exercise mentally is one thing. Actually acting it out empowers you at a whole new level.
Have you done it? Excellent!
Now that the old belief and all its emotion and negative energy have been neutralized and released, take a deep breath in and feel that sense of relief deep inside. You no longer have to carry that old baggage. It’s behind you now, and your abundant future is waiting!
New Beliefs Etched in Stone
Next, imagine a new board in your mind. However, this one is made of stone. Now imagine using a laser beam to etch in your new empowering belief. Or imagine bolts of lightning coming down from the sky (or from God) and etching your new belief into that stone. Make this new belief feel strong and permanent from the start. Because you haven’t actively believed this new positive belief as long as the old self-limiting one, you need to be just as dramatic in making this one stick.
So, what would you now like to believe about yourself instead? In your notebook, write down your new empowering belief.
“I___________________________________!”
Once you’ve etched this new belief into the stone, begin etching into stone the other five empowering beliefs you wrote down earlier. Cement these empowering beliefs into your mind and body. As you do so, imagine your mind absorbing these new beliefs and immediately acting upon them. Your powerful brain knows exactly how to create reality based on the information you give it. Now that you are supplying your mind with new and vastly improved information, it will do what it’s designed to do. It will begin creating your new reality based on the new positive and empowering belief system you’ve designed!
To learn even more about how to turn self-limiting beliefs into a powerful new belief system, check out my e-book, Get Out of Your Way, my audio book, The Power of Optimism: Mental Strategies for Silencing Your Inner Critic, or contact me at 317.579.7500.
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Tim Shurr, MA, is President of Shurr! Success, Inc., a personal and professional development company based in Indianapolis, and Director of Indy Hypnosis Center. He is an award-winning speaker, business strategist, TV personality, and an internationally known expert in Peak Performance. For more tips, visit www.OvercomeSelfSabotageNow.com or www.indyhypnosis.com/blog.
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