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"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

How to get out of our own way

Most of the time we are our greatest enemy. From childhood on we are literally scripted like a program by things that were said to us by our parents, other close relatives, teachers or friends. Experiences that happen to us also are stored in our memory and our brain is making conclusions about what we can do and more importantly, what we can’t or shouldn’t.

This way of experiencing reality results in a set of rules that become our belief-structure and therefore our mirror of "reality" and as an important part of it our own identity. But this reality isn’t a fixed thing, it is an image, a perspective we have in our minds. If it comes to our own self these beliefs can be supporting for us, or limiting.

It is very important to realize, that these beliefs are not reality. Reality is a relative construct. Beliefs are thoughts in our head that have formed an image of the world, that we work with. But it is not reality.

You may not even be aware of such self-limiting beliefs, but certainly they are there inside. Even if you made a lot of personal progress in working on yourself, there are a lot of areas were limiting beliefs are holding you back.

For instance the belief that the earth is flat was a belief of that many people were certain about. Also that the earth is the center of the universe was a belief that was "reality" and people lived by it, until there came Galileo Galilei in 1610 .

Let’s look at some areas, where limiting beliefs are common, for instance about money. Have you ever heard "The rich get richer and the poor stay poor." Or a more subtle belief is "Money is not important" or "you have to work extremely hard to achieve financial success" or even worse "Money is not for me."
In the area of the mind there may be the belief "I am not intelligent or smart enough." or "I am a pure logical type and can’t show my emotions".
On the social level maybe there are beliefs like "I am not good with people." Or "I am not attractive to the opposite sex."
Or such general beliefs like "I am too old." or the opposite "I am too young." And my all time favourite: "I don’t have enough time."
Even if you can’t recognize yourself in these beliefs, there may be other rules, that you are holding true for you but which are not supporting your true nature.

If such rules are working deep in our unconscious mind, are even held for the reality, these limiting beliefs are constantly influencing and distorting our possibilities and lifes. If you can become aware of these and identify them, you are able to change them, and by that, change your reality for the better.

One very true statement from the very successful Life-Coach Anthony Robbins I recall is "The past does not equal the future, unless you live there." This says that in a way we are constantly acting as the fortune-teller for our own life. If we live by limiting beliefs formed in the past, conscious or unconscious, we are doomed to repeat the results of the past over and over and thereby reaffirming these stupid belief-structures.

The importing thing is to have empowering beliefs, so that we are supporting ourselves instead of standing in our own way.

So how can we change limiting to empowering beliefs?

The first step is to become aware of the limiting beliefs we have. To make this easier I suggest thinking and discovering the limiting beliefs in the following areas:

Write down the most limiting belief you have about:

1. About money:

(Nothing will be saved in any way, please write it down separately or print it out in the end)

2. About the opposite sex:

3. About success:

4. About my dream:

5. About myself: I am …

5 steps to change limiting beliefs now:

Now you will take these 5 limiting beliefs and turn them into beliefs that empower you. Then you will "install" that new belief, until it has replaced the limiting belief.

As an example, if you wrote above: "Money is not important" you could write down as a new belief: "Money flows to me naturally by my service to others".

Taking the 5 beliefs above, what are the beliefs that empower you now:

1. About money:

2. About the opposite sex:

3. About success:

4. About my dream:

5. About myself: I am …