Bringing Awareness to Self-Limiting Beliefs

Are you familar with the voice that says things like:

• You can't do that.
• Who do you think you are?
• You're not smart enough or experienced enough to get that job or promotion.
• You have to stay busy all the time.
• No one really likes you.
• You're an impostor.
• No one is going to pay you that much money.
• You're not doing enough.
• You always make irresponsible decisions when it comes to finances.
• Your behind where your "supposed" to be.

I've heard this voice referred to by many names: self-limiting beliefs, saboteur, gremlin, monkey mind, fear, inner critic, committee, and negative self-talk.

I believe this voice is trying to protect us but is usually not based in reality. It can appear in many disguises but ultimately tries to keep us in our comfort zone and preserve the status quo. This voice tends to get especially loud as we try and move forward in a big way to change the direction of our lives. It is particularly adept at taking a small piece of the truth and fabricating it into the blanket reason for stopping, or never starting.

So, how do we work with this voice so that it doesn't keep us from moving forward in the way we want?

The first step is to bring awareness to this voice. It might be such a familiar voice to you that you identify it as being yourself. I promise, it's not! I would challenge you to try and see if you can notice when it is there and the circumstances that trigger its presence. You might need to solicit help from others and ask close friends and family to point it out when they see it showing up in your life. It is a sneaky voice and often hard to notice so you might have to dig a little to find it!

In Ultimate Support of You!

Katharine