Identifying Limiting Beliefs
The causes of limiting beliefs are family beliefs, education, and experiences. Everyone has different experiences with these causes but in the end we are all affected by them. Now that you know what can cause limiting beliefs, it is an excellent time to understand how you can identify these beliefs to rid yourself of them.
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The First Method of Identifying Your Limiting Beliefs is:
Identifying Your Beliefs
You are well-versed in what can cause these limiting beliefs, but are you aware of your limiting beliefs?
Take a minute and think about what is holding you back. Can you identify the beliefs that are limiting you?
If not, I can help you figure out the best way for you to identify these thoughts.
The first step in the process is to identify your beliefs, not just the ideas that hold you back but also your thoughts.
How Do You Identify Your Beliefs?
The answer is simple. You spend time with yourself.
While you are spending time with yourself, think about all the things you believe and how they affect your daily life.
Take a second to write down the beliefs that strongly influence your thoughts and actions daily.
Once you have written all of these beliefs down, you need to put them into categories. The categories can be anything from Family, Friends, Health, Relationships, and Finances. You get the idea.
Review each category and the beliefs associated with them. What thoughts are helping you grow, and what ideas are holding you back?
The beliefs holding you back are your limiting beliefs.
I know you may say to yourself. If it were that easy to identify these beliefs, I would have done it already.
I know, I know, I know. Here is the thing about that. We, as people, only allow ourselves to do what we are ready to do.
We can only change when we feel we are ready to change.
You may have never thought of these beliefs as holding you back, so why would you feel the need to identify them.
The truth is we all can be significant. Sometimes we need someone to show us the path and guide us along the way.
The Second Method of Identifying Your Limiting Beliefs is:
Assess Your Behavior
A second way to identify your limiting beliefs is to look at your behaviors.
How can the way your behavior has anything to do with your limiting beliefs?
I’m glad you asked. Limiting behaviors have a way of restricting people from doing different things.
Assessing your behavior looks a lot like thinking back on the times you acted in a harmful or toxic way.
I know many of us want to believe we never act negatively, but the truth is we do, and we know it.
While you are looking at your behavior, it is crucial to think about why you acted the way you did.
Observing these behaviors can give you an idea of the underlying cause for your limiting beliefs.
Not all harmful and toxic behaviors are rooted in limiting beliefs, but most is whether we know it or not.
An example of assessing your behavior can look like this:
Someone you know says something to offend you, and you feel saddened and hurt by what the person says, but you refuse to speak up for yourself. You keep your feelings bottled up inside.
You never say anything about the treatment because you see it as creating conflict. Growing up, your family taught you that conflict is
destructive.
Conflict is not always destructive; sometimes, we need it so that we can find resolutions.
The limiting belief that conflict is terrible is holding you back from standing up for yourself, allowing people to say and do whatever they want to you.
Getting rid of a negative belief like this allows you to believe more in yourself and what you have to offer the world.
The Third Method of Identifying Your Limiting Beliefs is:
Write Down Your Challenges
No one knows the challenges you face better than you. Now is the perfect time to state what your challenges are out loud so you can fix them.
Often, the challenges we face come from not learning the lessons we are supposed to know.
Your limiting beliefs can be the reason you face challenges in life.
Take the time to write down the challenges you are facing. Once you have the challenges written down, think about the possible lesson learned from those challenges.
Here is an example of a challenge you may face and the limiting belief associated with the challenge.
You have been in several relationships, and each relationship ends with you being heartbroken. There are a couple of challenges in this scenario. Still, they all lead to limiting beliefs about being love and receiving love from others.
These limiting beliefs can come from other people like you were growing up. They may have come from something you have told yourself on several occasions.
Where it comes from doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is what you will do to change the belief.
As I stated before, no one knows us as we know ourselves. We hold power to make all the changes we need to make to live the life we desire.
You know yourself better than anyone.