How Do You Know You Have Limiting Beliefs?

Beliefs are probably the most important element of our mindset, strongly influencing our results in our profession, business and personal lives. They alter our perception of the outside world and, as a result, we experience certain emotions that shape our responses to circumstances and challenges through our decisions, behaviours and actions, leading to concrete results in different areas of life. Beliefs also influence our core values, what we believe to be good or bad, true or false, possible or impossible, etc. 

If our beliefs are positive, they will support us in learning and growing, help us make better decisions, take more effective actions, etc. and achieve what we want. If they are negative, they will stop us in a very subversive and imperceptible way from achieving our goals. Often, we are not even conscious that it is we blocking our advancement and success, not other people or circumstances.

Do you often have "bad luck" in business, losing a project or an important potential client when everything has been almost settled? 

Do you procrastinate important actions? Do you keep attracting "bad" clients? 

While there could be other issues behind some of your problems, such as not being clear on your target group, having to learn marketing and sales techniques, etc., you must look at your beliefs and thought patterns. Which of your negative results are fuelled by limiting beliefs?

There can be many signs of self-sabotage pointing towards the existence of limiting beliefs. Recognising and acknowledging the signs is the first step to start interrogating your beliefs and making changes if necessary. Self-sabotage can be caused by limiting beliefs, fears, bad habits, etc. You'll often find limiting beliefs in the background when you go deeper into analysing your signs of self-sabotage and their primary causes.

Here are some of the most common signs of having limiting beliefs:

1. You do not set long-term goals; you only think in the short term.

Lack of long-term goals in your business and life can be a sign of limiting beliefs about goal setting or your abilities to achieve goals.

For example, you don't establish long-term goals if you believe it doesn't make sense to set goals in our turbulent, rapidly changing world or that economic conditions are too volatile to set long-term goals, or that it is easier to adapt to the environment if you only plan on the short term.

2. Your goals are low-level, within your comfort zone and easily achievable.

If you don't dare to set bold and high-level goals that will stretch you to get out of your comfort zone and grow, most likely you have some limiting beliefs that keep you stuck at the same level in your business, or your business might even shrink over time. You might experience fear of the unknown, of being criticised, of visibility, failure, etc. Often behind these fears are some negative beliefs.

For example, if you stay in your comfort zone, you might believe it is better to play small and safe. In this case, security might be an important value to you. Or, you might think you lose face and people will judge you if you try out something new and make a mistake. Or, you might believe you cannot do something until you are sure you'll do it perfectly. Such negative beliefs keep you stuck and stop you from practising and improving new skills that can help you grow your business.

3. You are a perfectionist

If you want everything you do to be perfect, to have all the information on a topic before you start doing something related to it, or you polish your report, article or a social media post again and again, change words and sentences each time you re-read them, and invest more time than required in less important tasks, you actually sabotage yourself with the desire of being perfect. Perfectionism is an excellent excuse for procrastinating important actions that could bring a breakthrough in your success.

Improving your services, products, marketing, business processes, and activities is important and must be a continuous preoccupation for you as a business owner. It is OK to be attentive, notice and correct mistakes. However, when this turns into an obsession with perfection, it will do more harm than good to the quality of your offers and marketing.

Behind this obsession with perfection, there are often limiting beliefs formed mostly in your childhood. If your parents were very demanding when you were at school, always expecting to get the highest marks, or if they punished you for getting lower marks, you might have developed the belief that anything less than perfect is punishable. So, if your work is not perfect, as an adult, the punishment might be criticism, a negative comment, somebody unfollowing you, etc., which is unacceptable for you.

4. You procrastinate taking action

Procrastination is not a time management, habit or willpower problem. You can use your willpower to overcome procrastination, but continuously using your willpower for motivation and action instead of having an inner nudge and intrinsic motivation becomes very exhausting and stressful after a while.

Procrastination is usually due to internal blocks, such as fear of something or negative beliefs. You could be afraid of losing something precious you have at present. For example, you might believe you'll lose your less successful friends if you are too successful. Or, you might be afraid that people will think you are not honest if you are too successful because you believe that only those who cheat can be successful, and you project this belief on others. Procrastination is often connected to perfectionism.

You might be afraid of making mistakes, leading to being judged and criticised by others. The underlying belief could be that you are not good enough, or you expect that everybody should like and approve of you.

5. You give up at the smallest setback

Life has challenges. The environment changes. We are faced with new situations, setbacks, and difficult moments. This is true for every person on the planet and in any area of life, including business. How we approach life's challenges makes the difference between success and failure.

If you abandon pursuing your goal at the first challenge, convincing yourself that it is not the right moment, or you are not good enough or any other reason, this is a clear sign that you have negative beliefs that stop you from facing challenges with your full potential or from getting up after a setback and starting afresh with the same motivation and desire to win. Your excuses for not continuing spring from your limiting beliefs.

6. You have a collection of excuses for why something cannot work or did not work out

Having excuses for everything you don't do, do not achieve, that goes wrong or doesn't bring the desired result is a sign that you have limiting beliefs related to that goal and area of life.

Your excuses are almost ready-made because they spring from your belief system. They do not allow any kind of openness or consideration of other possibilities or solutions. You are convinced that there is only one way to do it. This will stop you from looking for new business solutions, improving your products, services, marketing planning and communication, etc.

Your excuses might be your limiting beliefs. If not, start questioning your excuses to find your underlying beliefs.

7. You complain a lot about the environment and other people

Complaining is not only a bad habit but also an expression of a negative approach to the world, your life and business, and a negative point of view you use to look at the environment, its events, and your experiences.

Complaining can result from limiting beliefs such as 'This is what it is', 'The economic situation determines your level of success', 'You cannot do anything now because the economy is in recession / there is a financial crisis / my profession is disappearing…', etc. Complaining is often a sign of a fixed mindset, when you think that your abilities are what they are and they cannot be improved to cope with the new challenges of the environment.

The outside may even be as you believe. Still, when you connect your ability to do or achieve something with the environment, circumstances or other people, you will never start looking for solutions, skills to develop, different ways to achieve your goal or new opportunities. You give up your power to manage and direct your business through challenging situations to the environment and its components.

8. You blame the circumstances and others

Blaming your circumstances and others is a bit like complaining, but in this case, you not only repeatedly say negative things about the circumstances or other people, but also "outsource" the responsibility for your condition and results to the environment and other persons. You believe that you cannot influence the situation, therefore, there is nothing you could do to improve it, and you voice your frustration by blaming the environment. Blaming the outside world also shows that you do not take responsibility for your results. Instead, you make others responsible for what is happening to you and the results you get.

Of course, the circumstances are as they are, and you are not responsible for them and cannot influence them. But you are responsible for how you respond to those circumstances. Blaming often means you have a fixed mindset, believing you are who you are and cannot change to respond differently.

Behind this behaviour, there might be hidden limiting beliefs such as

• I am powerless in front of the events.
• To be successful, you need luck and money.
• Wealth is distributed unequally in the world.
• Your birth and upbringing determine your success. etc.

9. Your dominant self-talk is negative

Pay attention to what you say to yourself during the day, and especially when you encounter a challenge or solve a problem, when the result doesn't turn out to be as you expected, etc. Is your self-talk encouraging, positive and empowering? Or do you belittle yourself, consider yourself not good enough, useless, etc.?

How you talk to yourself, your inner dialogue, says a lot about your beliefs. If your self-talk is mostly negative, you certainly have limiting beliefs running the show in the background. Your self-talk is also an important factor leading to the formation of beliefs. So, if you mostly talk negatively to yourself, you will reinforce the old limiting beliefs and ingrain new ones into your subconscious mind.

Listen to your self-talk because it will reveal many of your limiting beliefs! Then, consciously change the negative elements of your self-talk to start developing positive and empowering beliefs.

10. You lack motivation and stamina

You get enthusiastic about your goal and start planning and taking action. Then, in a few days or weeks, you start losing motivation and your actions become sporadic, hesitant, ineffective, powerless, and you procrastinate.

Maybe you believe that the lack of immediate results means that 'you are on the wrong path', and you should be doing something else, or your goal is not aligned with who you are.

Behind losing your motivation, there could be beliefs related to your person, your abilities and worthiness, what success should look like and the timeframe you should achieve it, etc.

You might have unrealistic expectations for immediate results. If they don't show up immediately, you think you are not good enough. Or, you might believe that only big results count, and do not appreciate the small ones showing your progress. These beliefs and expectations may result from social media, where people often brag about their quick successes.

11. Comparing yourself to others

Comparing yourself to others means that, instead of measuring your progress toward your own goal, you always compare your achievements in different areas of life to others' results. While it can be fine to have a role model if you feel that helps you to work toward your goals, when you constantly use outside references to evaluate your progress, it can be very disempowering and frustrating because you are not the other person. You have your own competencies, aspirations, interests, personality, background and upbringing. You can implement other people's growth techniques if they suit your situation, but the results must always be measured against your point of departure and goals.

This is a frequent mistake of new solopreneurs. They look at their social media channels and compare themselves with entrepreneurs who started the business years before them, concluding that they are a failure. In this way, comparison can lead to the creation of new limiting beliefs if you keep repeating to yourself the negative conclusions of the comparison.

The habit of comparing yourself to others' achievements is often rooted in childhood if your parents used to compare your results to other children's and then point out that you were not as good as them. The most likely results are some limiting beliefs, such as 'I am not good enough', 'I can never be as good as ………….', 'I don't have what it takes to be …… or to achieve….', etc.

Beliefs, such as 'I can only be loved if I am the best' or 'People will laugh at me if I am not as good as ………', might determine you to compare your results to outside standards as an adult, making you feel miserable, dissatisfied and unfulfilled because the imagined external expectation always come before the life you want for yourself and your goals.

12 You have déja-vu experiences

Do you have the feeling that your life goes in circles and you stumble again and again in the same type of situations in your business? Do you feel you're reliving again and again the same experience, although with other participants? That is a clear sign that you must start looking for limiting beliefs related to that situation. For example, if you repeatedly get difficult clients with whom you have the same problem, and it is not the fault of your product or service, most likely, you have a belief about clients that works as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you believe clients who use a service like yours have a certain characteristic or behave in a certain way? You will encounter that characteristic or behaviour in the majority of your clients.

13. You often change your mind about what you want

If you keep changing your mind about what you would like to achieve without any solid reason behind it (i.e., you have evolved and your goal is not relevant anymore, conditions have changed considerably, and you have to revise your goal, etc.), very likely you have limiting beliefs.

You might believe you must follow the trends and change your goals and strategy because otherwise people will think you are too conservative or can't keep up with the technological changes. If you change your time management tools and apps each time something new appears, you will never get to integrate any of them into your daily work and get good results. After a while, you'll conclude that time management tools and apps do not work.

Have you recognised any of the enumerated signs in your business behaviour?

Book a free 30-minute Clarity Call to start uncovering the limiting beliefs behind the signs and how you can clear them and turn them to your advantage.