The limiting beliefs that hinders your success

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Almost everyone believes that people can only be called “genius” if they have this extraordinary brain that can understand complex ideas. We are hard wired that people who have high IQ are the only people who deserves to be called as “genius”.

The truth is there are different kind of geniuses within us, it can be based on ideas (Dynamo genius), based on our connection with people (Blaze genius), based on seeing the bigger picture (Tempo genius) and based on how brilliant people are with details (Steel genius).

We all have the potential to be great, even though you don’t believe it for yourself. The problem is not our brain but rather the limiting beliefs that we constantly tell to ourselves.

This historical event proves that we are all capable of more than what we believed and tell to ourselves. Check this story of Roger Bannister below.

STORY OF SURPASSING YOUR LIMITING BELIEF

This was truly the Holy Grail of athletic achievement. This is the time when Roger Bannister break the barrier that all experts are saying to be impossible to break. The four-minute barrier stood for decades — and the experts believed they knew the precise conditions under which the mark would fall. It would have to be in perfect weather — 68 degrees and no wind. On a particular kind of track — hard, dry clay — and in front of a huge, boisterous crowd urging the runner on to his best-ever performance.

But Bannister did it on a cold day, on a wet track, at a small meet in Oxford, England, before a crowd of just a few thousand people.When Bannister broke the mark, even his most ardent rivals breathed a sigh of relief. At last, somebody did it! 

And when people saw that it can be done, other people followed and did it too. Just 46 days Bannister’s feat, John Landy, an Australian runner, not only broke the barrier again, with a time of 3 minutes 58 seconds. Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier in a single race. Over the last half century, more than a thousand runners have conquered a barrier that had once been considered hopelessly out of reach.

This story tells us that if we start thinking the possibilities and all our potential, rather than just be confined by what the “expert” or “people” set for us, we can achieve more than what you have imagined for yourself.

WHAT ARE THE COMMON LIMITING BELIEFS

1. Intelligence is fixed

A great paragraph mentioned from the book Limitless by Jim Kwik;

In a fixed mindset, student believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset, students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

We should never set a restriction or limit for what we can do. Having a growth mindset allows you to continuously grow and learn from all the experiences that you gained whether be it good or bad. Thinking that everything can be learned allows you to see all the opportunities of life.

2. Mistakes are failures

The system influences us to think that if we commit any mistake we have already failed. This started when we started going to schools, wherein most of the merits/marks you can gain is solely based on what is the right thing you answered, if you commit too much mistakes you will fail.

We people are risk averse in nature, we avoid committing any mistake, the reality of life is that you will never be able to see your greatest potential and achieve your goals if you did not commit any mistake at all.

Mistake means an opportunity to learn and failure only happens when you decided to stop trying.

3. Knowledge is power

This is only half true, people who have the most and greatest knowledge have this greatest “Potential” power. However, this will only be a potential power until someone took an action on it. We often forget that the key to success is not about just knowing everything but rather trying everything. Knowing doesn’t mean anything unless you have acted upon it.

We have to understand that success happens not when you read all the books but when you execute all those books you read. We shouldn’t forgot the most of important ingredient of success and that’s “execution”.

4. The criticism of other people matters

How many time you’ve considered what other people will say to you when you wanted to do something? I think most of us experienced this. As part of our human instinct we always wanted validation and approval of other people.

We always wanted to follow where the crowd is going. But the reality is that if someone wants to be successful, you need to do the opposite of what the crowd is doing.

We need to understand that the opinion of other people is “theirs” and we have no business of what other people are thinking about us. That is their “opinion” thus, it does not necessarily mean it is already true or factual.

The more we try to fit in, the more we are losing our authentic selves.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You might not notice it but we all have these limiting beliefs within us. These are the things that are stopping us from reaching our full potential and achieve our goals. We have to have self-awareness in order for us to see these limiting beliefs and stop them.

You don’t need to be someone else, you already have the ability and capacity to achieve all your goals, you just have to remove those thoughts that are limiting you and take massive action.