"Believe You Can and You Are Halfway There" - Or Stay Stuck!

By Suzie Doscher

Henry Ford so wisely stated: "If you believe you can, or cannot - you are right." In other words if you believe something to be true, then it is your truth. If you believe you cannot do something ... you cannot and therefore will most probably will not even try to find a way to do it. If  however you believe you can figure something out ... most probably you will find a way. Your beliefs can be negative or positive, therefore they can limit or empower you.

Not Quite the Person You Want to Be (but know you are inside)

If you are not quite 'the person you want to be', then it pays off to find out if it is a thought (belief) that is holding you back. The thought could be anything from 'I do not know how', 'I do not have any support', 'I do not know where to start', 'I am uncertain about this,' etc.

Beliefs are thought patterns, evaluations, opinions, judgments and generalizations that you hold about yourself, and others. These beliefs can stem back to your early formative childhood years and have been stored there in your unconscious mind ever since. They can also be from experiences as a teenager, young adult or adult. Experiences with your parents, relatives, siblings, teachers, friends, social environment, from traumas, media influence or repetitive experiences add to the collection of information that forms these beliefs, be it negative or positive.

The Eyes See But It Is that The Mind Tells You What You See

The first law of perception is that the eyes see but it is the mind that tells you what you see. One of the reasons your mind tells us what we see, or perceive, is that the underlying beliefs tend to make you look for certain things. For example a cynic will see what he or she is looking for just as much as an optimist will see what he or she is looking for. Each chooses their experience from their beliefs. When you believe something to be true naturally you act as if it is. You bring on what you expect. (Think Placebo effect) If you continually act in ways that support negative beliefs, negative events tend to materialize. People are like magnets you attract what you believe.

To unlock your potential and be the person you know you are these limiting beliefs should be replaced with positive, empowering ones.

Change Takes Time, Repetition and Patience

Holding on to self limiting patterns ensures that your potential can never be reached. When you believe you can... you find the way forward, one small step at a time. Once you are 'wired' with positive, empowering beliefs you automatically set goals you know we can achieve and therefore be successful in reaching them. Empowering beliefs to encourage growth, which leads to change and a happy, successful and fulfilling life.

Take Stock of Your Thinking Patterns.

• Make a mental note of what thought keeps cropping up whenever you are struggling with something.
  
• Consider whether this thought is in your best interest.
  
• Find the best way forward to reframe/replace this thought that is holding you back. Think in terms of getting the virus out of the software!
• Know that "If you believe you can, or cannot - you are right!"

As an example: if you find 'I do not know how' keeps cropping up. Stop yourself, sit down and start thinking in terms of "If I did know how, what would I be doing differently?'" That is a good start to slowly changing from "I do not know how" to "I can figure this out'"

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Check out Suzie's book
 
'BALANCE - A Practical Handbook for Life's Difficult Moments' 

Full of self coaching exercises to support you.

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