How would you feel if you stripped away all your limiting beliefs? I’ve been working on eliminating some of mine, and it feels so free. I created a visualization technique to help picture how it would feel to live without those limitations. I imagined that I started out looking a bit like Raphie’s little brother in A Christmas Story when his mother wraps him up in so many layers before going out to play that he can’t even put his arms down. Imagine all those layers as a representation of the limitations you are carrying around in your life. These might be things like- I’m not smart enough to do that, or I’m too young to be taken seriously, or you have to work really hard to make money, or I could never be athletic. We wrap ourselves up in these false beliefs to the point where we can hardly move through life. When we want to change and move towards something, we can barely move because we are held back.
So now visualize stripping off those layers of limiting beliefs. Layer by layer you feel a little more free and able to move in new directions. It gets harder as you get to the layers you have held close to you for many years. You may never get completely free and bare it all to the world of possibilities, but even stripping away a few of those beliefs might feel like a huge relief. Stop and think right now about what limiting beliefs you have been carrying around with you. For a long time, I believed that I could never be athletic. I blamed my genetics and the fact that no one in my family ever really played any sports. But a few years ago while doing the Daily Burn workouts, they had an I Am an Athlete week where you said the mantra after each workout. It felt so foreign to me, and I kind of laughed each time I said it. But you know what, I started to realize that my definition of being athletic was very narrow. I started to appreciate the time and dedication I had put into improving my health, and I realized that I was in fact an athlete. Once I shed the limiting belief of I’m not athletic, then I could embrace becoming even more athletic. Today I love to workout and have reached a point of having an athlete level of resting heart rate for my age.
Where are you wrapped up too tight? Are you holding on to beliefs that your parents put on you? Are you limited by your peer group? Are you wrapped up in believing you have to have a job you hate to survive? Take a minute to imagine what you could do if you didn’t have those beliefs right now. Would you quit that job and start your own business? Would you feel encouraged to go for a really big goal like running a half marathon or traveling around the world? Would you feel free to pursue a new creative pastime? Could you be bold enough to let the world see all of you? Could you bare the real, authentic, honest you instead of the one you shrunk to fit into (the one your family/peer group/society told you to be so you could fit in with others)? Maybe it’s time to be a little wild and free. Lay bare your assets to the world and see what kind of attention you will draw! It might be a little scary at first, but eventually, you start to notice that your true self under all those limiting layers is truly a beautiful thing to see. You’ll attract others who dare to live authentic and free as well, and you’ll make the world a little safer for others to strip off their layers as well.
The world might appear cold, but once you are out there and exposed you will start to feel the warmth of the sun of possibility on your soul. Let me know what you are stripping away this year. I’m ready to go bask in the glow of possibility for 2021. I’m not letting my own limitations hold me back, even if I might have to change my plans to fit into a pandemic world. There’s still plenty of ways to get out and virtually touch the lives of others.
If you are looking for ways to remove your limiting beliefs, I recommend reading Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. He explains some of the science behind eliminating limiting beliefs and replacing them with new ones.
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