I was listening to a speaker recently explain why people don’t obtain results. And do you know what she said?
It’s about our beliefs.
Think about one of the New Year’s resolutions you made ten months ago. Maybe, like many of us, you had ‘lose weight’ on your list. Let’s say fifteen pounds.
Have you accomplished it?
Here’s the thing – if you don’t see yourself as a thin person- then you aren’t going to lose the weight because your belief and goal are not in alignment.
How do we free ourselves so that we can actually obtain what we want?
In other words, how do we begin to see how we may be limiting our own success or progress?
To understand this, we have to be willing to deep dive and go within. We have to ask ourselves three questions that will help us get to the heart of what we believe and why we think we may not deserve to achieve our goal- to be thin, healthy or rich.
Ready to dive in?
1. How Are You Limiting Yourself?
We are the only ones thinking in our brains, so guess what? We tell ourselves every moment of every day if we’re happy or sad, feeling motivated or not, seeing ourselves as successful or as failures.
Let’s use the above example about losing weight. Can you imagine yourself as a thin, fit woman? When you look in the mirror, are you able to see yourself as a size 4/6/8?
When you do this, what happens? Is it impossible? Is there a voice that tells you, it isn’t really you?
Sometimes when we reach beyond what is familiar, what we’re used to, we have to take a leap of faith. Because we’re talking about changing our habits of thinking. We get used to our thoughts – good or bad because they’re familiar.
But if those thoughts are limiting you, it’s time to change them.
And when we first begin to do that, these new thoughts can feel ill-fitting, like wearing in a new pair of shoes.
It seems weird and at first may not feel like you but the more you affirm what you do really want and see it as already done, the more familiar and comfortable those messages will become until it is you.
So – claim what you want! Look in that mirror every day and see yourself thin, healthy and fit!
Remember, you are not your own limitations!
2. Did Your Family Give You Limiting Messages?
Maybe when you dive into uncovering the blocks preventing you from losing fifteen pounds, you hear your stepmother tell you that you’ll never be beautiful or maybe the voice is your father’s saying, “you’ve always been fat” confirming it as your identity.
Perhaps the messages you received told you that you were stupid, unaware or clumsy because you were hyperactive or learned in a different way.
We all received negative comments growing up, I know I did and I even believed many of them for years.
But at some point we have to recognize that these messages, even though we take them on, really aren’t about us.
I remember watching a movie as a teenager in which one of the characters told another she was a fat person in a skinny person’s body and a light bulb went on. I realized I was the opposite – a skinny person trapped in a fat body. That a-ha moment helped me break through messages from my family about my identity and helped me hold on to a new view of myself.
What messages have you been able to overcome?
Remember, you are not your family’s limitations.
3. How Have Society's Messages Limited You?
What are the messages we get from the media and Hollywood? How have they shaped your thinking or are limiting your dreams?
Women are constantly inundated with messages about beauty and body. According to shame researcher, Brené Brown, the number one shame trigger for women is our bodies. We are never thin enough, fit enough, pretty enough… If we buy into these messages, we can make ourselves crazy.
When do we decide that we are enough?
When we stop defining ourselves by other people’s standards.
What about society telling us how to be successful?
I know a woman who dropped out of high school at 15. Just before she turned 50, she started a new business venture and now runs a multi-million dollar company!
If she’d listened to the messages from society, that she couldn’t be successful without a college degree, without even a high school degree, she might still be a waitress.
Instead, she recognized what she was good at, passionate about and kept following it. She hustled, worked hard and is now reaping the rewards.
You are not society’s limitations
Sometimes I think about Olympic athletes, how they often go above and beyond what we think is humanly possible. They break records, they inspire us with their abilities and sheer will to succeed. They go beyond all limitations – society’s, family’s, coaches, and even their own- to achieve greatness.
We all have that ability to go beyond those limitations and achieve our own greatness.
Are you ready?
Tell me what YOU are going to do by leaving me a comment BELOW!