“Watch your thoughts, they become words;
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
- Frank Outlaw, Founder of Bi-Lo
Everyday you’re faced with choices and challenges, and how you choose to respond to them will shape and mold your life. If you’re by nature a positive person who always sees the glass as half-full then rock on! But if you tend to look for the negative in new situations or other people, then read on and set yourself free! Limiting beliefs could be holding you back from living your best life.
Change the Way You See the World
Most unhappiness comes from the repetition of old stories we play out in our heads: “I’m the unathletic one, the chubby one, the dumb one or the one who can’t speak in front of the class.” Happiness involves letting go of that baggage and moving forward with a new story. Explore where your ideas came from and ask yourself if they’re really true. Just because your fifth grade gym teacher told you that you weren’t athletic doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow your dream of training for a marathon or trying a spin class- or even play backyard football with your kids.
If you continually think negative thoughts because of your ingrained beliefs, your mind will see them as the truth. Whether these thoughts are about your appearance, your intelligence or your athletic abilities, you’ve got to leave them in the past in order to thrive in the present and reach your goals in the future.
Most often, our sense of present inadequacy comes from these false beliefs created in the past; so later on in life, when we go to answer the question of, “Who am I?" we answer from this place of not being good enough. Here’s the thing: you have the control to change your situation, and when you realize that one bad experience from your past doesn’t have to be the frame of reference for your future, a whole new world will open up.
Try This …
Write down your top five goals for the next five years. They could be anything from getting that promotion you’ve been dreaming of or losing those last 10 pounds to reach your ideal weight. Make two columns next to your goals and in the first write down the limiting belief you have about why you think you’ll never reach them; in the next column write down the strengths and skills you know you have that will help you succeed. Instead of focusing on the negatives, focus on all the reasons you can and will succeed; and then find a productivity tool, like Goals on Track, to track and celebrate each little milestone success.
When you learn to let go of your past and live in the present, there is no goal you can’t reach, problem you can’t solve or race you can’t win; so decide to go for it and believe you can do it!
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