Are ‘Limiting Beliefs’ Robbing You?

Limiting beliefs. Everyone has them. What are your limiting beliefs? Do they look like any of these?

• I can’t take this new position because I’m not qualified.
• I can’t make friends because I don’t have time.
• I can’t lose weight because I’m too old or too stressed.
• I can’t succeed in reaching this goal because…

How do these limiting beliefs rob your life of refreshment and fulfillment?

In his book, “Your Best Year Ever,” author, Mike Hyatt, discusses the creation and achievement of goals. He explains, “Our beliefs play a massive part in how we approach life. We tend to experience what we expect. We’ve known this for a long time.” Sociologist William I. Thomas said in 1928, “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” Reflecting on this statement, sociologist Robert K. Merton coined the phrase, “self-fulfilling prophesy.”

Hyatt continues, “Because our expectations shape what we believe is possible, they shape our perceptions and actions. That means they also shape the outcomes. And that means they shape our reality… One of the biggest reasons we don’t succeed with our goals is we doubt we can. We believe they’re out of reach. Polls show the percentage of people in their twenties who achieve their New Year’s resolutions is far greater than those over fifty. In fact, while eight in ten millennials set resolutions, almost seven in ten adults over sixty-five say setting resolutions is ‘a waste of time,’ according to the Harris poll. Why? It’s sad, but the greater number of setbacks we’ve experienced in life, the less likely we are to believe we can prevail. Doubt is a goal toxin.

“…Most of us have a long history of not getting what we want out of life. To shield ourselves from future disappointments, we develop a cynical, self-protective attitude toward life.”

As you begin a new fall bubbling over with the promise of unimagined opportunities and endless possibilities, choose to identify your personal limiting beliefs and reject them. How, you ask? It’s a choice. Rosamund Stone and Benjamin Zander write, “Many of the circumstances that seem to block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on a framework of assumptions we carry with us. Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view.” Change your mind. Change your life.

So instead of looking at the fall as the return of overwhelming schedules, responsibilities and demands, recognize, as we said last week, you and you alone have the power to change that reality. Turn to God. Ask him what His plans are for your fall and winter, identify the ‘limiting beliefs’ that tell you these things are impossible and trust the God of the impossible. Jesus said clearly, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”(Mark 10:27)