In our society, there are numerous long-established notions that either never served or no longer benefit anyone. These notions have grown and fused together to create a mental prison, which many of us have allowed to develop through our own volition. We often find pursuing our goals and taking action in order to achieve them daunting due to these limitations we’ve created ourselves.
Therefore, instead of making solid choices based on interest, excitement, or even passion, we tend to make these decisions with the fear we’ve imposed upon ourselves. It’s sad that making decisions equipped with only a limited belief system not only serves to render us powerless, but it thwarts us from developing in the manner we really wish we could.
To manifest all our desires, it’s imperative to have a belief in the power to achieve anything! When examining the list below of limiting beliefs, do you believe you’re basing any of your current choices on these ideas? I know some of these leave me unable to move forward at times.
Common Limiting Convictions
1. Play it safe! – Only when we take risks, do we reap the rewards as an end result! Playing it safe is essentially the most dangerous position where we can place ourselves if we desire fulfillment and success, leading an exciting life. How are you supposed to grow wings and fly if you decide to play it safe with a mediocre desk job that you don’t truly enjoy. This notion is deeply engrained in many of us. The majority of us base our most vital life choices on playing it safe.
2. Only fools rush in! – Even if our intuition seems hasty, shouldn’t we seek out what we feel is right? How many times have you made an instantaneous choice stemming from a feeling in your gut, having discovered this decision was a life-saver? One example is if you’ve ever veered out of your freeway lane to avoid an accident due to your inner guidance? If you feel a strong inclination to perform a task, why wait?
3. You’ve got to kiss some frogs before you meet your prince! – Is this really our desire? Have you ever considered all those couples who, after meeting as high school sweethearts still enjoy a happy relationship after all those years?
4. Love hurts! – If you think you’re in love and you’re experiencing pain, is this truly love? I often ponder how many people have endured in relationships with the absence of love, because they believed on some level that they were experiencing love, because “love hurts.” Why do we let ourselves believe love should hurt? Isn’t a better alternative to enjoy relationships built on kindness, compassion, and unselfishness?
5. The elderly get ill and fall apart. – How awful does this sound? Why even bother to make an attempt to live a long life in this case? Wouldn’t it be a better alternative if everyone died at 30, such as they often did in the Dark Ages? Does it make any sense for us to have the desire to live a long life in the event that we simultaneously hold the notion that aging is a miserable, painful process?
6. The old are wise, and the young are foolish. – As you may have experienced, there are many wise children that exist, and many foolish adults. Wisdom depends on the connections we have experienced with the endless knowledge of our universe, not the amount of time we have existed on the Earth. Young people are not all morons and not all elderly people offer sage-like advice. Listen to the words of those who connect with your soul without regard to their respective station in life. Don’t ignore excellent advice advice due to the age of the adviser or accept bad advice from an older person. In addition, if you are young and you know what you’re speaking about, don’t allow anyone to make you believe otherwise.
7. Beauty fades. – Beauty is subjective in the eye of the beholder. Beauty isn’t a concept that is related to age, but instead to your personal perception. This belief only causes insecurity as we age and serves no other purpose.
8. Wealthy people are evil and greedy! – This notion is a terribly limiting, which helps us never achieve wealth! If being wealthy is a negative thing, we’ll never let ourselves believe that we should have plentiful funds at our disposal.
9. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. – If this notion has held largely true for you, you’re probably not surrounded by the people you should allow into your life. Many people allow themselves to be caught up in toxic work environments due to the fact that they have been taught that this behavior is typical. Why shouldn’t we be allowed to enjoy opportunities where co-workers work together in a peaceful environment without the backstabbing and competition.
10. You require a college degree to attain success. – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg all achieved their goals without a college degree. Jennifer Aniston and Maya Angelou also achieved their goals without the benefit of one. As a matter of fact, I have a college degree, but the only job I’ve worked at since I attained it that required my degree was my teaching position, and we are all aware of how financially well teachers are in contemporary society. Though I loved college and I’m grateful that I was offered the opportunity to attend, my diploma isn’t what has brought me success. Successes are achieved by us alone, not from a formal piece of paper. No sole path we embark upon carries us to success.
11. Save your pennies! – We can’t take it with us, so why should we try? Money isn’t even “real”. It’s an abstract value that fluctuates. The bulk of our money sitting in our bank accounts isn’t truly even physically saved anywhere. It’s a convincing illusion, but nothing more. Why do we make so many decisions based on this illusion and how much money we don’t have? To be additionally educated on this notion and how it began, and how we can begin to release it, take a look at this article.
12. Always make your best effort! – If we are always focusing on tirelessly making our best effort, we are probably missing the opportunity to “go with the flow”. We are all aware of how trying too hard is a nearly guaranteed method of bombing at a job interview or a surefire way of being rejected by an attractive lady you’re trying to get to notice you. Why do we make ourselves believe that we have to try that hard?
13. You should fear God. – For those who are religious, most religions tend to depict God as an all-accepting and loving figure. Why would you not just love God instead?
14. Life’s short. – Consider the alternative, “We’re eternal!”
15. Death should be feared! – Often those who have encountered near death experiences depict death as a magical experience. What if death simply lets us give birth again to an even better life? If we prefer to be philosophical about it, we might even argue that someone should be excited about death! Wouldn’t it be way easier to build amazing lives if we saw ourselves as unlimited, omnipotent, and eternal creators who could achieve anything.
When we opt to hold onto limiting beliefs, such as the ones depicted above, we sever our wings and provider ourselves with reasons to not follow our intuition or actively seek out our dreams.
To end the hold of these beliefs on us, we simply need to open ourselves up to embracing an alternative perception of reality, and then seek out viable evidence to support this reality. We all possess the ability to conceive of whichever convictions we wish to believe if we’re willing to keep our minds open and perform some soul-searching.
If you believe you’re prepared to set out and achieve your life goals that you have yet to pursue, perhaps it’s time to begin uncovering the layers of beliefs that inhibit your aspirations to escape the mental prison that traps so many of us! Believe in your ability to be the empowered, eternal creator that you truly are.
By: Amy Russell
