If you have ever been inspired to something great, you already have it within you to fulfill it. You see, the word inspired or inspiration means to be in spirit. And as stated before, “Spirit has always been for greater expansion and fuller expression.” You can do this. Napoline Hill was right when he said, “Whatever the mind can conceive, the body can achieve.”
Now, I would like to take this time and share with you Michael Hyatt’s six-step process to overcoming limiting beliefs so that you can exchange them for liberating truths.
The first step is to acknowledge the limiting belief. Whatever the belief may be, wherever it may have originated from, and no matter how true it may seem, it is important to realize that it is just an opinion about reality and more than likely it is more wrong than it is right.
“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.” — Muhammad Ali
The second step is to write the belief down. In my experience, I’ve found that most of these beliefs always start with something like, “I don’t have…” or “I can’t…” or “I’m not…” and so forth.
I’ll even personalize this a little more and give you little into my own life. Believe it or not, I’m not getting any younger, and I currently possess three degrees. Not too long ago, one of my limiting beliefs was that I was getting too old and that I was overeducated. And I thought that this was the reason why I was not being successful at finding work.
Well, what I did was I wrote those limiting beliefs down, and by writing it down I was able to externalize it, which then gave me the freedom to evaluate it.
Writing Causes Thinking
Thinking Creates an Image
Images Control Feelings
Feelings Cause Actions
Actions Create Results
The third step, then, is to evaluate or assess the belief. Try to look at it objectively and start by determining if the belief is an empowering belief or not. Is it is empowering you to move forward with the moves or changes you are trying to make, or is it enabling you to stay where you are at?
In other words, usually, when it comes to those that are addicted to drugs or what have you, there is always one family member who acts as an enabler rather than a change-maker. Moreover, it’s important to bear in mind that many people are oftentimes “addicted” to their limiting beliefs. Maybe it’s because it gives them a sense of control, like they got the world figured out. Or maybe it provides a measure of certainty. The bottom line is that honest evaluation is the key to liberation and freedom.
The fourth step is to downright reject, or reframe the belief. Truth be told, where some people may believe they lack confidence, it’s really nothing more than a limiting belief, or downright lie from the pit of hell. I’ve observed numerous amounts of people, who at one time or another thought or believed that they were unconfident, but only to become some of the most confident people I’ve ever met.
You see, they realized that several of their beliefs were coming from somewhere else, and that they were taking ownership of something that really didn’t belong to them. Instead, they began to believe in themselves more and focus their energy on securing those positive, liberating truths just like you would secure something valuable in a safe or vault.
Reframing, on the other hand, is a bit more involved. But not as difficult as it may seem. You see, many limiting beliefs do have the size of a mustard seed of truth in them. That’s what makes them so convincing at times. But the fact is they are not the whole truth. And understanding that is empowering in and of itself. In other words, if something is not the whole truth, that still makes it a whole lie. And you don’t have to settle for a lie.
Take the news media for example. Sure, there is a lot of bad news out there, but that is only a brief part of the picture. Where the news media wants you to focus on cities like Portland, Chicago, and Seatle, and refer to these three cities as making up the nation as a whole. Well, clearly, that’s just silly. And where they want you to think that uncivilized riots or “peaceful protest” are spreading all over the nation, the truth is these small groups are only occupying certain isolated areas and not the nation as a whole. In fact, there are even more areas and larger groups of people that are committing acts of kinds than those you see acting out violence.
One last thing about reframing. Many years back I started what I call a Faith Building Journal. It started out as a Faith Building List, but now I have bookshelves full of these journals. The idea is this: What I would do was write down a list of at least 10 things that I wanted God to do on my behalf for the year. This was much more than just a prayer list. What I would do, as each request would be fulfilled or answered throughout the year, was to check that request off the list and write next to it the date and time it was brought to fruition. Creating these lists and following through with this process resulted in overflowing blessings. They became something to refer back to as well when times of discouragement or doubt and disbelief would come over me.
Just like you should write down your limiting beliefs in order to externalize them so that you can freely evaluate them, you should also write down your liberating truths so that you can come back to them when you feel like your limiting beliefs are overpowering you again, which helps to overcome them and builds confidence. In other words, when you begin to experience a liberating truth, and your circumstance and life begin to change based off these new perspectives, it’s hard to deny the facts. But sometimes we just need a little remembering every now and then.
The fifth step is to revise the belief. This goes beyond just a simple affirmation, although those can be helpful. What I am talking about here is, in essence, recalibrating your original belief. For example, if you are like me and have believed that you are “getting too old for a certain job” you might decide to revise your belief to something like “I have more experience then other candidates.” Or if you have the belief that “you are overeducated” you might consider revising it to something like, “I come to the table with more applied knowledge than other candidates.”
The sixth and final step is to reorient or recalibrate yourself to the new belief. Imagine this in the same way your GPS works when it recalibrates a new route for you to take in order to get to your destination. It may feel awkward or unfamiliar at first, but give it time and trust the process. If you keep telling yourself this new liberating truth it will eventually begin to feel familiar and you will become more comfortable with the new route.
And every time the old limiting belief decides to creep back up, reject or reframe it as we have discussed before. Repeat the process. The trick here is to start living your life as if the new belief is true (and here is the key point: it is true!). The more that we do this the more we bring our so-called reality into alignment with our desired expectations.
Now, I would like to take this time and share with you Michael Hyatt’s six-step process to overcoming limiting beliefs so that you can exchange them for liberating truths.
The first step is to acknowledge the limiting belief. Whatever the belief may be, wherever it may have originated from, and no matter how true it may seem, it is important to realize that it is just an opinion about reality and more than likely it is more wrong than it is right.
“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.” — Muhammad Ali
The second step is to write the belief down. In my experience, I’ve found that most of these beliefs always start with something like, “I don’t have…” or “I can’t…” or “I’m not…” and so forth.
I’ll even personalize this a little more and give you little into my own life. Believe it or not, I’m not getting any younger, and I currently possess three degrees. Not too long ago, one of my limiting beliefs was that I was getting too old and that I was overeducated. And I thought that this was the reason why I was not being successful at finding work.
Well, what I did was I wrote those limiting beliefs down, and by writing it down I was able to externalize it, which then gave me the freedom to evaluate it.
Writing Causes Thinking
Thinking Creates an Image
Images Control Feelings
Feelings Cause Actions
Actions Create Results
The third step, then, is to evaluate or assess the belief. Try to look at it objectively and start by determining if the belief is an empowering belief or not. Is it is empowering you to move forward with the moves or changes you are trying to make, or is it enabling you to stay where you are at?
In other words, usually, when it comes to those that are addicted to drugs or what have you, there is always one family member who acts as an enabler rather than a change-maker. Moreover, it’s important to bear in mind that many people are oftentimes “addicted” to their limiting beliefs. Maybe it’s because it gives them a sense of control, like they got the world figured out. Or maybe it provides a measure of certainty. The bottom line is that honest evaluation is the key to liberation and freedom.
The fourth step is to downright reject, or reframe the belief. Truth be told, where some people may believe they lack confidence, it’s really nothing more than a limiting belief, or downright lie from the pit of hell. I’ve observed numerous amounts of people, who at one time or another thought or believed that they were unconfident, but only to become some of the most confident people I’ve ever met.
You see, they realized that several of their beliefs were coming from somewhere else, and that they were taking ownership of something that really didn’t belong to them. Instead, they began to believe in themselves more and focus their energy on securing those positive, liberating truths just like you would secure something valuable in a safe or vault.
Reframing, on the other hand, is a bit more involved. But not as difficult as it may seem. You see, many limiting beliefs do have the size of a mustard seed of truth in them. That’s what makes them so convincing at times. But the fact is they are not the whole truth. And understanding that is empowering in and of itself. In other words, if something is not the whole truth, that still makes it a whole lie. And you don’t have to settle for a lie.
Take the news media for example. Sure, there is a lot of bad news out there, but that is only a brief part of the picture. Where the news media wants you to focus on cities like Portland, Chicago, and Seatle, and refer to these three cities as making up the nation as a whole. Well, clearly, that’s just silly. And where they want you to think that uncivilized riots or “peaceful protest” are spreading all over the nation, the truth is these small groups are only occupying certain isolated areas and not the nation as a whole. In fact, there are even more areas and larger groups of people that are committing acts of kinds than those you see acting out violence.
One last thing about reframing. Many years back I started what I call a Faith Building Journal. It started out as a Faith Building List, but now I have bookshelves full of these journals. The idea is this: What I would do was write down a list of at least 10 things that I wanted God to do on my behalf for the year. This was much more than just a prayer list. What I would do, as each request would be fulfilled or answered throughout the year, was to check that request off the list and write next to it the date and time it was brought to fruition. Creating these lists and following through with this process resulted in overflowing blessings. They became something to refer back to as well when times of discouragement or doubt and disbelief would come over me.
Just like you should write down your limiting beliefs in order to externalize them so that you can freely evaluate them, you should also write down your liberating truths so that you can come back to them when you feel like your limiting beliefs are overpowering you again, which helps to overcome them and builds confidence. In other words, when you begin to experience a liberating truth, and your circumstance and life begin to change based off these new perspectives, it’s hard to deny the facts. But sometimes we just need a little remembering every now and then.
The fifth step is to revise the belief. This goes beyond just a simple affirmation, although those can be helpful. What I am talking about here is, in essence, recalibrating your original belief. For example, if you are like me and have believed that you are “getting too old for a certain job” you might decide to revise your belief to something like “I have more experience then other candidates.” Or if you have the belief that “you are overeducated” you might consider revising it to something like, “I come to the table with more applied knowledge than other candidates.”
The sixth and final step is to reorient or recalibrate yourself to the new belief. Imagine this in the same way your GPS works when it recalibrates a new route for you to take in order to get to your destination. It may feel awkward or unfamiliar at first, but give it time and trust the process. If you keep telling yourself this new liberating truth it will eventually begin to feel familiar and you will become more comfortable with the new route.
And every time the old limiting belief decides to creep back up, reject or reframe it as we have discussed before. Repeat the process. The trick here is to start living your life as if the new belief is true (and here is the key point: it is true!). The more that we do this the more we bring our so-called reality into alignment with our desired expectations.
