Conquering Limiting Beliefs
A lasting impression
The first step toward lasting change is to truly believe you can succeed, and not just in the short term. Depending on how deep seeded your limiting beliefs are, this is by no means an easy task. Many techniques will be discussed in later articles, but a brief breakdown of the necessary steps is as follows:
1) Break down past criticisms for what they truly are.
Sadly, there may have been some people from your past who truly wanted to do you harm, but in most cases, negative comments are either a form of teasing, or derived from jealousy. The former are meaningless, and should be viewed as such.
As for the latter, see those for what they are. If a person criticized or derided you in order to bring you down, they were clearly jealous of you. They saw something in you they wanted, or wanted to be. If this was the case, it should make you feel more confident, not less, because they saw you as being better than they were, and they didn’t like it.
At the end of the day, “haters gonna hate”. They will do anything to bring you down, because they are unhappy with their own lives. You need to give the naysayers the credence they deserve, which is to say, none whatsoever. They do not have your best interests at heart, so what they say should be completely and utterly dismissed.
2) Consider the source.
It is human nature to want our parents to love and respect us. But as much as we want to put them on some form of pedestal, they are as human as the next person, and have just as many flaws (if not more).
We are all products of our environment, and our parents’ behaviors were formed by, and from, the love and respect they either received, or didn’t receive, from their parents.
At the end of the day, WE are the masters of our own destinies, not our parents, siblings, or spouses. Why would you allow the thoughts and actions of a flawed individual to impact our lives negatively – especially if that person did, in fact, mean us harm? It makes absolutely no sense.
3) Let that shit go!
As my wife likes to say, the statute of limitations expires on childhood experiences. We ALL have insecurities stemming from our past. Those who truly choose to keep it in the past and move on from it are the ones who lead the most happy, healthy, and productive lives.
It requires a mental discipline, starting with this: Stop daydreaming of the past, and of “what-ifs”. Train yourself to focus on the future, and visualize a future that no longer includes self doubt and addiction (that includes food).
Imagine a future in which you no longer overeat, smoke, etc., and see yourself leading the life you truly deserve. Think about it every day, and make THAT the focus on your life change, not the pain of what you might be giving up.