You have a dream. It will change your whole life. It will bring happiness and fulfillment in abundance. You dream your dream often. It is out there, you know it.
If only…
If only you were not so full of doubts and fears, you would be living the dream.
Fear is the #1 inhibitor.
It causes the doubts and paralysis.
It forces you to stay “safe” and contained. Safer to remain constricted than to reach out to your dreams.
You sit and dream.
What could have been, if only…
And dreams slip through your fingers like grains of sand through a timer.
Understanding limiting beliefs is the first step to overcoming fear.
The first thing is to understand what fear is and why it is there.
Fear is those voices in your head telling you that you might fail; that you are being stupid or reckless; that you are not worthy of it – the voices have a long list of negative doubts that they will sow in your mind. These are limiting beliefs.
They are biological. They are there to keep you safe – that’s their job. They are a big biological pause button; they don’t like change because SAFE is known; UNKNOWN is scary and therefore perceived as dangerous. So, these biological gremlins shout loudly in protest.
- Limiting beliefs do not want you to go for your dreams and make changes.
- Limiting beliefs want you to stay “SAFE” exactly as you are, even if it means unhappiness.
- Limiting beliefs care nothing for your happiness, so long as you stay within KNOWN.
The issue with biological pause buttons is that they cannot distinguish between what is a safe, calculated risk and what is unsafe. They have a singular default position: fill your head with negative doubts at pretty much everything you are doing outside your comfort zone.
Beep. Beep. BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEEEPPPPPP!
Limiting beliefs are like a parking senor in your car. You can see in the mirrors that you are not going to hit the cars. You know that you have enough space to park in the bay. Yet your parking sensors beep and shout at you in warning that you are going to have a horrible crash. Parking sensors cannot properly assess risk, so they beep whenever you are in close proximity of ANYTHING, irrespective of real danger.
This is the world of limiting beliefs.
How can you overcome fear so you can live your dreams?
- Review your situation. Take a rational look around and determine what are the real risks and what is just noise, just as you would with parking sensors going off.
- Recognise that fear is normal but it should not define you. Everyone who steps outside their comfort zone will feel a degree of fear; but those who succeed step out anyway and refuse to be inhibited by fear.
- Consider what risks like within your control. Putting in clear contingency plans help mitigate risk but on top of that, by facing logically the things you fear the most will often remove the biggest fear of all – the unknown.
- Tackle the “unknown”. The only way to remove the unknown is by taking action. What we imagine in our heads is never as bad as the reality, so start the journey.
- Break the journey into measurable simple steps and just keep progressing to take one step at a time. It is less scary to just focus on the next step ahead rather than the whole.
- Keep progression as the goal, not on getting everything right. There will always be things you can do better, and obstacles are part of the journey. Rather than dwell on barriers, see it as a sign that you are progressing towards your dreams.
And if you need help to overcome limiting beliefs so that you can achieve your dreams, this is precisely how coaching can help you. Together, we unlock your limiting beliefs to free you from the fear that holds you back. You are liberated to discover your limitless potential – and like so many others who have taken that leap – you can live your dreams!
Find out more about your best coaching path here or send a message via the link at the end of the page.
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