Are your beliefs empowering you, or hindering you?
Empowering beliefs will make you feel strong, possible, and confident. They will inspire you to take chances, fail, try again and again and again, and feel successful as you do. When your beliefs are empowering, you will know there is nothing you can’t be, do, or have.
However, if your beliefs are disempowering you, then you will be afraid to try. You’ll play small. You won’t take chances. You’ll be overcome by the fear of failure. When your beliefs are disempowering, you will believe other people are special, or lucky and you aren’t. You’ll feel limited in all you do.
Here’s why: Your beliefs impact EVERYTHING about your life. From how you feel about yourself and the world at large, to the actions you do or don’t take… your beliefs are ALWAYS the culprit.
Crazy, right?
That’s why it’s CRUCIAL to check in with yourself. Because if you’re stuck in a disempowered mindset, you won’t lead the life you want to live.
Fortunately, all change starts with awareness. And right now, I’m going to walk you through a simple 6-step process you can use starting TODAY to unlearn the limiting beliefs you carry. Plus, you’ll be guided through an exercise to create new empowering beliefs too.
Ready to dive in? Let’s get started:
Step 1: Survey ALL of your beliefs
What do you believe about money? Career? Relationships? Spirituality? Health and wellness? Your purpose?
In this step, you need to become uber specific about each area in your life. Where are your beliefs holding you back? Perhaps it’s your love life, or your career, health and wellness, or financial status.
Regardless of what area needs to change (for most of us it’s several!) becoming aware is key to address and solving the problem.
Step 2: Determine which beliefs need to change
Now that you’ve surveyed your beliefs, you need to determine which beliefs you need to change.
For example, let’s say you have disempowering beliefs about your ability to succeed. When you think about pursuing your passions, thoughts such as…
- “I’m not smart enough. I’ll never be able to do X.”
- “I’m not talented enough.”
- “I don’t know enough to achieve Y.”
… surface. In this case, changing your beliefs about your ability to succeed will be paramount to achieving personal success. Otherwise, you will always believe you can’t do what you want to do, so you won’t give yourself the grace of:
- Taking chances
- Failing, failing again (and again and again) until finally, you create momentum
- Living life on YOUR terms
Once you determine which beliefs need to change, continue to the next step.
Step 3: Get to the root of your beliefs
Take a few minutes to reflect on your life. If it helps, grab a journal and write down your limiting beliefs. Then, see if you can narrow where they came from.
Using the example from above, let’s say your lack of personal belief stems from:
- Being told you can’t do X,Y,Z
- Being told you aren’t smart enough by peers, parents or teachers
- Being taught to please others before yourself (so you pick a career or skill based on making someone else happy rather than following the song in your heart)
In this case, your limiting beliefs around personal success stem from learned experiences. Fortunately, everything that is learned can also be unlearned…
Step 4: Create new, empowering beliefs for yourself
Now you’re ready to rewrite your system of beliefs. In this exercise, you’ll need a journal and a pen.
Here’s what you’re going to do:
- Write down each limiting belief you carry
- Write down the root of that belief
- Write a new, empowering belief to replace your limiting belief
For example:
Limiting belief: I’m not talented enough to become a successful writer.
Root of belief: In high school, I turned in an essay for a writing contest. My teacher said it was garbage and told me my time would be better spent doing something else rather than writing.
New belief: I am talented enough to become a successful writer. I have what it takes to turn my dream into a reality. I know it’s the small, simple steps I take daily such as writing in my journal, blogging, and sending emails like these that add up to massive results. I’m possible and my dream is possible.
Do this for every beliefs you’ve determined needs to change. As a best practice, section of your beliefs into categories (financial, relationship, health & wellness, etc.) and then tackle each limiting belief, roof of that belief, and new beliefs by section. This will likely take time, and should not be rushed.
Step 5: Recite your new beliefs daily.
Words are powerful. When yielded consciously, they have the ability to elevate your life. That’s why when it comes to ingraining your new beliefs into your subconscious, you need to recite them daily.
When you wake up in the morning, spend 5 minutes reciting your new beliefs to yourself. At first, these new beliefs may feel fake or even forced, but over time you will grow to believe them.
Here are some suggestions for how you can make this easier for yourself:
- Hang your new beliefs somewhere in your room
- Keep a journal with your new beliefs by your bed
- Record yourself reciting your new beliefs, and listen to the recording each morning
Doing this will help you step into the mindset of a doer each and every day.
Step 6: Act in alignment with your new beliefs
The final step requires action, and should NOT be attempted before the other 5 steps have been completed entirely.
Once you arrive at step 6, you’re going to ask yourself, “How would someone with these empowering beliefs act?”
Be SPECIFIC, and do this for EACH belief you have recreated. Then, take action — follow the footsteps of what that doer would do.
As an example:
Going back to the example mentioned in step 4, if my new belief is that I can become a successful writer, then I need to act the part. To get started, I could create a writing schedule for myself, and stick to it — no excuses! I would also read daily to garner inspiration from successful authors AND increase my knowledge and vocabulary. Then, I would look for opportunities that align with my desire to become a successful writer such as writing contests, freelance writing jobs, book submissions and so forth.
In addition to the above, I would also create a list of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual goals for myself. Most of my goals would be granular, such as writing daily. Others would be massive, such as publishing a best-selling book. However, I’d recognize it’s the SMALL, daily actions that would ultimately get me to where I want to be.
In summary, your beliefs are POWERFUL! They impact every aspect of your life. In order to change yours, you have to:
- Survey your beliefs
- Determine which beliefs need to change
- Get to the root of the beliefs holding you back
- Rewrite new, empowering beliefs
- Ritualize reciting your new beliefs
- Act in accordance with your new beliefs
It won’t be an immediate process, and you WILL experience some resistance as your subconscious purges your old beliefs. But, if you keep it up, you WILL rewrite your beliefs and step into an empowered life.
Which beliefs are limiting you? Let me know in the comments below.
Xx,
Antasha
Isn't it time you started living the life you've always imagined?
