Now there's a bold statement! I think the majority of us experience self-limiting beliefs at some point; I have them multiple times a day. Seriously! In fact, I have self-limiting beliefs about dozens of things - I can't cycle 53 miles because I too fat; I can't learn Polish because I'm rubbish at languages; I can't write a blog about (insert any subject here!) because I don't have anything interesting to say; I can't run a training session at work because the course material I write isn't good enough, I'll go to that festival when I've lost some weight........ The list is boringly long. Why do we let self-limiting beliefs rule our heads? I recently told a friend that I wish I had a magic mirror that she could look into and see herself the way I see her. Instead of seeing somebody who is shy and boring, she would see a woman who is intelligent, funny, beautiful and loving. When our family and friends tell us how amazing we are, why don't we believe them? Maybe it's because we are brought up to believe that "blowing your own trumpet" simply isn't done - it's not nice, it's bragging and showing off. The problem is, if you tell yourself something often enough, you actually start to believe it! Here's an honesty bomb for you - sometimes I buy into my negative self-talk because it's easier and less confronting than actually doing the thing I'm avoiding! Or the thing I'm worried about failing at - or even (insert drum roll here!) the thing I'm scared of SUCCEEDING at!! Because if I succeed at something big, then I'll have no excuses for doing the smaller (but equally scary) things! So, because I'm a curious soul, I have been wondering what would happen if I challenged my own self-limiting beliefs and stopped buying into them. This is a scary thought for me and entails me re-writing my script. The new script would go something like this: on November 2nd I'm going to cycle 53 miles and I'm going to rock it; I love English and I love writing so learning Polish is going to be fun; I going to write a blog piece about self-limiting beliefs because I have something insightful to say on the subject; the training sessions I run at work are relevant, informative and fun. Whenever I tell my daughter Katrina that I can't do something she says to me "Mum, you took on Loch Ness, in a storm - and you won! You can do this" and she says it with such matter of fact conviction that it leaves no room for argument. So, I am currently training for a 53 mile cycle, learning Polish, adapting my life to accommodate Dupuytren's Disease (big shout out to the inventor of the left handed tower mouse!), writing another training session for work and writing this blog about self-limiting beliefs. One by one, day by day I am slowly replacing my self-limiting beliefs and giving myself permission to live my life without any self-imposed limits. You never know, one day I may even let myself pursue that big, fat, impossible dream I have.........................
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