LESSON 2 – EXPANDING BELIEFS

We are so great at convincing ourselves of ‘stuff’ aren’t we?

What I have learnt from experience is that the beliefs that deserve our time are the ones that fuel your imagination and your fullest self-expression. So, I say, believe in those thoughts that bring you to life, the ones that point you in the direction toward the best part of you, and kick those parts of you that are fearful and hung-up in the butt! Meet them head on, thank them for existing, which has allowed you to get to this point in your life, and then set them free.

So, how do you go about doing that I hear you ask?

Let me share with you here.

EXPANDING BELIEFS.

Because limiting beliefs tend to be fixed, or static, they also tend to keep you frozen in time, inactive or unsuccessful. They can significantly limit your potential if you allow them to, and especially if you leave them unrecognised.

The good news is that as soon as you can recognise a limiting belief, it can be refocused to be an expanding belief, one that points to possibility like a spotlight and can launch you into a better future.

Your deeply held beliefs are what determine what you’ll make of any situation. They are in essence how you view your world. Depending on whether they are limiting or expanding, you will find either possibility or you will encounter a roadblock.

‘LYBL’ STORY: ENTER MARY

Mary is a perfect example of someone whose thinking had prevented her from living her best life. She had a deeply held belief that was keeping her from leading the life she wanted. This limiting belief was the unfounded fear that if she allowed  her small business to grow to where she truly hoped it would, she would lose her personal freedom, be tied to her desk inside her office forever; a never-ending chain of work-related responsibilities.

Losing her freedom was something she wanted to avoid at all costs – even that of her business profitability. At the same time, Mary was greatly dissapointed that her business had not developed and thrived as she’d envisioned. 

Talk about being in conflict; two parts of her pulling her in totally different directions.

So there she sat before me, paralysed between two polar opposites – wanting freedom and wanting her business to take off – Mary was definitely feeling bruised and battered and was considering herself victimised and unlucky.

Mary had actually wondered if she would ever feel successful, so you can imagine all the limiting beliefs held up in that concept.

When Mary started coaching with me, our first area of focus was for her to recognise that her life was less than great, not because of some bad luck that had crept in to find her but because she was unknowingly, on an unconscious level taking only enough action to protect her limiting belief.

‘Knowing’ deep down that if the business succeeded, she would be ‘robbed’ or ‘stripped’ of her personal freedom, Mary had been unconsciously stopping herself from being more successful.

As we began to work together, she realised that success would only increase her freedom and her ability to pay for outside help if the workload became overwhelming.

I love these light bulb moments with clientsand how they light up inside… I call them ‘A-HA’ moments. I have grown to thrive on those ‘A-HA’ moments that people create for themselves.

Once she had this ‘A-HA’ moment, her thinking changed and she began to see positive changes. Clients started to appear as if out of thin air. She developed a conviction that she could have a flourishing business and still have a life.

As her business began to grow, so did her newfound confidence.

Mary, now has a thriving business, but has set boundaries. By setting clear intentions of how she would like her life and business to be she is now no longer working on weekends and has dedicated evenings throughout the week where she works, no longer working late every night. She now feels empowered rather than stuck and bound by her business.

She has achieved her goals without losing anything. In essence, Mary retrained and reprogrammed her brain to move forward into the life she wanted. She turned a limitation into a possibility.

Time after time, I can point to example after example where just changing a thought, as Mary did, resulted in a shift to more positive circumstances.

Upon changing their thoughts from ones that always came to the conclusion a goal was ‘impossible’, to ones that insisted what they wanted for themselves was definitely possible, so many of my clients have reported that they are attracting new opportunities at a rapid rate of knots and the people around them have noticed the change within them.

This has also happened in my own life.

I desired a particular outcome and yet, I was totally convinced it would take at least six months to implement. I hesitated to take the steps to even get started; I was the one who was now paralysed with my own thoughts, even though I knew I really wanted to see this come to fruition. It was not until my own coach pointed out that it was within my power to change my thoughts and believe what I wanted could happen more quickly, more fluidly. As soon as I gave this the power of my new thoughts, the outcome I desired cam rushing in.

I have to admit that although as a coach, I had the awareness to do this for myself, my first instinct was to reject it. Sometimes we can be too close to our own challenges and we need to take a step back, or have someone else hold up the mirror for us.

So, I did it.

And as soon as I did, everything relating to this and how I had previously seen it, changed.

Within two weeks of ‘changing my mind’ or spending time in reprogramming my thoughts, what I had feared would take six months to accomplish manifested itself before my very eyes. This came about, I know, by training my brain about what was possible and changing my beliefs to match my outcomes and areas of possibility.

Imagine what you can accomplish as you let go of your limiting beliefs?

Limiting beliefs tend to lead to dead ends and pits of frustration.

Expanding beliefs can lead you to an open road of possibilites.