We all have limiting beliefs that impact us in both our careers and in our lives. In this video I talk about two types of limiting beliefs: those others put on us and those we take on ourselves, and what to do about them…
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
(music) Hi, there. I’m George Karris, and today I want to talk a bit about beliefs that limit your success. We all have these beliefs around what we’re good at, what we’re not good at, what we can achieve, and the way things need to be done. It’s really important from time to time that we take the time to pause, and question what these beliefs are, and really think about them a bit. I’d like to share a couple of examples from my experience around self-limiting beliefs, and what those can look like.
One aspect that I wanted to share was around beliefs that are put upon you, and frequently this happens. Our parents have certain belief systems they put upon us. Our family, our friends, and they all believe things about us, and pretty soon we can tend to believe them about ourselves. I know in my case I had an experience once where I was working for someone, and frankly I felt like I was more talented than she was, and I knew more than her about how to be successful, and what it took. I asked her if I could do these certain projects and she said, “No. I just don’t think you can handle them,” and it was like I knew I could. I knew I could handle those projects, and I was so frustrated and I said, “Hey. You know what? I will write down I can achieve this project, and if I can’t you can just fire me at the end. I am totally that confident in this.” Of course she refused to do it.
It was such a frustrating period in my career, and thankfully in my case I actually believed that I had the skills, and I knew that I had the skills, and within about six months I was in a different role. Within six more months I was promoted to a peer position, and then a year after that I was a level higher than she was. I quickly rose through the ranks relative to her, but I think about what would’ve happened if I had taken on her beliefs about me, and what that might’ve been like. If her limitations had come from … Her limiting beliefs about me had come from somebody who I trusted more, if it’d come from somebody in my family, or a close friend, or a mentor even and said, “Hey, you have these same limits,” how I might have internalized that, and what it would’ve done potentially to my career.
When I look at where I am now one of the beliefs that I find that I just … I had that I just overcame was around, “Can you have an enjoyable lifestyle, and own a business of some size?” I had this idea in my head that you have to have a business that’s small if you want to maintain a certain high quality of life. Frankly it was in a conversion with another entrepreneur, and he said to me, “Why do you think that’s the case?” As he challenged me I realized it was a self-limiting belief completely, and so it is entirely possible to have a big business, and not have it consume your life completely. It’s entirely possible to have a small business that does consume your life completely. The belief that I had was limiting what I saw as my potential, and so the question I have for you is, “What are the beliefs that you have about yourself, about your situation, about what’s possible, and what works in life that are limiting the way you see opportunities, and what … and how far you can go?”
In the workplace it’s really easy to see other people who have limited visions of you, and I know I have a client who struggled with this. Her boss has this very limited view of what she can do, and she knows she do more that, and enough time has passed that, that started to limit her perspective on herself. That’s a really dangerous time. Thankfully she’s out of that work environment now, but you can see how this happens, so the question is, “What are your self-limiting beliefs?” Think about those. Think about how you can challenge them.
Really the one thing you need to overcome a limiting belief is a piece of data. A piece of evidence that shows you that it’s not real. I don’t know if you’ve read The Four Hour Workweek, it’s one of my favorite books, but the premise is you can structure a business, so that you only work four hours. I read it. I admit I’ve read it a couple of times and I thought, “This is really cool. I believe it, but I’m not sure if I totally believe it, or whatever,” and now I know somebody who’s actually done that. He’s got a business that’s automated, and he basically works on it four hours a week or less. Until you have that data point you don’t know whether it’s real, or a myth.
If you have these beliefs about yourself the first thing you can do is really figure out what those beliefs are, and the second thing you can do is go look for that data point that challenges those beliefs. Look for that person that can show you that what you thought wasn’t real. Once you do that it opens your eyes to a host of opportunities. That’s my guidance on self-limiting beliefs. Best of luck, and I hope you enjoyed the video. Thanks.
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