How to Free Yourself From a Limited Belief

Maintaining a limited belief can be harmful for any individual. It restrains them from chasing after their dreams and fulfilling their lifelong goals. After the average person settles for a limited belief lifestyle, they eventually begin questioning their own life choices and negative beliefs.

They wonder what could have happened if they had quit their jobs and opened up their own businesses. They wonder what could have happened if they asked out the girl they watched from a distance for several weeks. They live through a variety of situations inside their heads, wondering which choice would have made them happy.

But from personal experience upon myself and with a discussion with others, the term happiness is coined from not achieving your dreams, but to lay those thoughts to rest because you know you chased after it. Rather than daydreaming about what would happen if I asked out a girl, I already know the results after making it a reality. If she said yes, then I managed to fulfill that desire. If she said no, then at least I don’t have to continue wondering about the unknown.

The darkness is always most scariest when we question what’s inside of it. It’s until we take one step inside and use a flashlight to finally see what’s hidden.

Sure, you won’t find a pleasant creature every time you look inside the darkness but at least your thoughts can lay to rest about the different possibilities.

You won’t believe there’s a dragon in the darkness when it’s only a mouse. You will know yourself when you decide to chase after your dreams rather than think about it.

The term limited belief was coined to me a few years ago after I traveled across Africa with a few people. Most of them spoke about what they wanted to accomplish and achieve out of life.

Nearly everyone had a dream such as becoming a video game designer, a comic book artist, or investing in the stock market.

And yet, almost every one of them had an excuse to why they weren’t doing them yet. A majority of them didn’t even have an idea to how they would start their journey.

One of the main limited beliefs they settled for was that they were either too old, didn’t have enough money, or not enough time. As much as I wanted to help them find the answers to their questions, I was on the same boat as them.

I was still trying to determine my own destiny and desires. It was already clear to me that I didn’t want to settle for a 9 – 5 job where I I would eventually end up hating my career.

The idea of settling for a lifestyle a majority of the population seek after wasn’t in my best interest. I knew for a while that I wanted a type of freedom that didn’t bind me to money, but rather my own choices. I was also aware I wanted to be a writer and see the world, and yet I wasn’t sure how I was going to arrive there.

A Limited Belief System Creation

The time we think most about our dreams is during our childhood or teenage years. At such a young age, we receive a type of enthusiasm that sends our mind to wonder and excitement. We never question what our limitations are or what could hold us back. All we thought about was the designation we wanted to arrive to.

However, by the time you’re mentally mature, negative experiences can crush those unlimited beliefs. Those negative beliefs could derive from horrible experiences you endured or people who tore your dreams down with their own false opinions. At this point, you stop seeing the possibilities of getting past reality and view your dreams as an imaginative thought.

The first process to remove a limited belief isn’t just thinking positively and hoping for the best. That may set you a couple steps ahead from the rest of society in regards to succeeding in small areas, but it won’t be enough to mentally push you towards your dreams.

For instance, you know you need to exercise because it’s healthy, it gets you into shape, and it improves your brain functioning. However, holding a basic awareness over it isn’t going to automatically change your lifestyle or health. The most you’ll ever do for yourself is regret those neglected decisions because you decided to procrastinate on any physical activities.

And perhaps you have reached a level of awareness that you need to exercise to develop a healthy lifestyle. You even spent a few days at a gym to start the process.

But instead of conditioning your mind to settle for exercising regularly, you choose to give yourself excuses because of your previous correct choices. Even though you “reward” yourself because you previously exercised, unless you set a focused mindset to why you need to continue your routine, you’ll drop it.

A common practice I used to do was give myself random excuses to not exercise during my regular routine. Normal excuses I told myself were that I had to rest after work or I was too hungry to exercise properly.

If my mind was capable of persuading me from doing any exercises, I accepted it. And yet, the more I practiced the belief of exchanging my exercise sessions for something less productive, the more my overall self esteem molded.

Consciously, I told myself it was the right decision to work on my business instead of exercising. But on a subconscious level, I knew I was purposely neglecting my health and it sent negative feelings down my spine. My integrity lowered and I began making impulsive and unconfident decisions because of those previous choices.

The major mistake in neglecting my exercises was imagining how tired I would become after the process. This sent me unpleasant thoughts that eventually built into lazy habits. That was when I decided to take a quick look into history.

Limited Beliefs: Ancient Times Versus Now

A while ago, I looked over a recent study regarding how the human mind functioned and compared it to how people behaved during the medieval ages. I expected to find a lot of differences between the wide gap of time that differentiated, but there were more similarities than I expected. During the 15th century, the average person thoughts mostly concerned:

“How can I fit in with these crowds of people?’ “How can I feed my family?” “Am I going to be dragged off to war?” “How can I escape these barren lands?” “Can I become a knight and give honor to my family?” “Will the King raise the taxes again?” (Even though that still sort of happens today)

We may live in a more advanced age compared to people living in the past, but our beliefs will always revolve around our physiological, safety, and social needs. Once those needs are met, we then search for self actualization and self-esteem. It’s when we feel the need for achievement that begins the process of removing a limited belief mindset. The type of mindset to overcome any limited belief is what I call The One Track Motion.

What is the One Track Motion?

Such as everyone else in the world, you might like to assume you’re an ultimate genius who can do anything you want. But in reality we’re all limited to know only so much. (Yes, even you, Mr. Rocket Scientist with ten degrees.) You physically don’t have enough room in your brain to know how everything works or every step to achieve your goals.

All you really need to know is how to get from step A to step B and what matters most to you. By providing yourself with more ways to get to your goal, you’ll only make things complicated.

Making a Large Picture Simple to Understand

People like to see the big picture for what it is because we’re programmed to think that way. Instead of only focusing on one tiny part of a picture, we try to see the entire thing. (Which isn’t a bad thing for an admiral point of view.) Subconsciously, we will pick up every event that’s going on in a picture. However, consciously, it’s going to be difficult to maintain every aspect of that painting for long term goals.

Your mind will exhaust itself if you’re trying to focus on how every part of a painting is formed, what colors were used to make it up, and how large every person within it is. Instead, all it wants to focus on is perhaps a dog, the lake, or a particular woman sitting on the grass. Knowing how the entire picture is made isn’t going to make your life any better. But if you stick to a certain area that interest you, you begin to think differently about it.

Some would argue that we’re encouraging ignorance when I say it’s okay to ignore the rest of the painting. But how will it help you understand the details of a picture if you always try to focus on the entire piece instantly? The only thing you’ll do is blindly see it as a bunch of random people sitting at a park before forever turning away from it. Your interest for it will temporarily last because there’s too much details for your brain to suck in instantly.

However, when we take a look at the picture below where the red circle is at it makes it much easier for our brain to firmly grasp.

Instead of soaking in what the dozens of people are doing, it can focus on that particular family. That focus area may be further away than the other people in the painting, but it still sets a firm idea to what our brain should be looking at. There, we see there’s two women and a young girl sitting together in the shades. We may not understand why it’s happening, but we can allow our imaginations take care of that as we notice every detail of that area.

Once you feel like you understand those three people and feel comfortable seeing another part of the picture, that’s when we set our mind to another specific area. This cycle is then completed until you pointing marked every point in that picture. It will take longer to view the entire picture versus someone who only glanced at it, but you see it from a different point of view. You receive a type of intimacy because you took the time to see the details in the entire picture.

Such as viewing a portrait in a detailed manner, you should approach your goals in the same manner. Aim at looking in the small zones to what you’re working on rather than the entire set. When we work out, of course we want a sexy body everyone will admire. But that’s like looking at the entire picture. the idea may look nice but your brain isn’t going to want to think of the details on how you’re going to get there.

If you have a fear of trusting people because of possible rejection, don’t focus on the results. Only keep your mind to approaching that person and discovering how much you have in common with them. From there, experiment during the conversation by seeing what they find funny and entertaining. If you look ahead of the conversation and how it might transform into a wonderful relationship, you no longer live in the present. This makes you anxious after returning back to reality and discovering you’re not in the relationship you want to be in.

Despite what your alter ego assumes, you’re not going to know everything nor are you expected to. Human minds are very complicated because despite the vast knowledge it can hold, it often likes to reference what works best for us.

You may feel like a genius because you understand coding and programming. But perhaps you lack the imagination to create new programs and software. or maybe you lack the skills for graphic designs. That doesn’t mean you should drop your dreams into the trash. It just means you need to narrow your mindset towards what makes life easiest for you. Find someone who can assist you with your goals or invest in the time to build those skills yourself. Find someone who can look in the areas of your “painting” when you don’t have time to focus on them.

Most importantly, make your beliefs simple to understand. Don’t spread your mind to a variety of useless subjects that doesn’t pertain to your day-to-day living. Focus on areas that brings you closer to your goals. Who cares if you’re unable to draw the best pictures in the world or know how adobe works. As long as you can draw a picture that’s entertaining for your target audience, that’s all that matters.

You can always complain that you’re unable to do something because of either “this” or “that“. But overcoming those limited beliefs are much easier once you narrow your thinking process into simpler terms. Avoid trying to understand the entire subject at once and focus on areas that matter to you most that moment. When the time arrives when you have to learn other subjects, you’ll be mentally prepared to shift into it.

The art of overcoming a limited belief system isn’t focusing on the entire subject or how you’re going to get there entirely. Your only job is to think about how you’re going to get from point A to point B. If you want to clear your ideas, take out a sheet of paper and write down what you want to achieve. Don’t write the complete formula. Just focus on where you want to aim for next.

The most ironic part of overcoming a limited belief is to simply narrow your beliefs into areas that actually matter to you most. Don’t think about how much money you want or what you’ll gain in return. Focus on the next step and remain optimistic about it. Stay in the present moment and connect to what your soul is feeling.

When you start to feel frustrated and tired, take a break and avoid permanently breaking away from your goals. When you see you’re not where you want to be at, accept reality for what it is and stop blaming yourself. A negative belief will only give birth to a limited thought process to what you could actually achieve. Whether you need to take a walk outside or speak to someone about your frustrations, avoid the trap of jumping into negative thoughts.