Limiting beliefs are something we all deal with at some point in our life. The problem is, that if we don’t overcome limiting beliefs, they hold us back from achieving our goals and realizing our full potential. Sometimes years go by before we realize that what held back our success were our own mental barriers.
So, what exactly do psychologists call “limiting beliefs”? Well, limiting beliefs are negative thoughts, that in some way hinder our personal growth, success, or well-being. Limiting beliefs about our ability to lose weight are extremely common, and are the reason diets don’t work for most people. Our past experiences (and failures!) make us think: “I’m not good enough”, “I’ll never succeed” or “I’m too old to lose weight/for this kind of sport.”, etc.
Do you know, which are the limiting beliefs, that are controlling your life and holding you back from (weight loss) success? Do you think you could identify them? Here are some more common examples, that are not easy to spot:
“I did a long workout today in the gym, I deserve this chocolate.”
“It’s very complicated to eat healthy when you are traveling.”
“I don’t have enough time to cook, train, sleep enough hours, etc.”
In this blog post, I’ll teach you how to identify your own limiting beliefs, question them and substitute them for positive beliefs, which will empower you to finally reach your (weight loss) goals. We will go over these 5 steps you need to overcome limiting beliefs:
- Identify Your Limiting Beliefs.
- Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs.
- Create New, Empowering Beliefs.
- Use Visualization & Positive Affirmation.
- Take Action.
- Bonus Tip: Prepare For Setbacks
5 Strategies To Overcome Limiting Beliefs
Here are the 5 strategies you need to finally overcome limiting beliefs (I have included a helpful bonus tip at the end, make sure you don’t miss it):
1. Identify Your Limiting Beliefs.
Sometimes limiting beliefs are not easy to identify, as they often dictate our behavior without us even realizing it. Basically, any (negative) beliefs about yourself, others, and the world around you, that stop you from reaching your full potential are limiting beliefs. They often originate from past experiences and we have adopted them because we (unconsciously) want to avoid making the same mistakes again. That means in some way limiting beliefs protect us from failure, but that also means they stop us from trying again. If we want to reach our goals, we have to accept that setbacks are part of the way.
So, first of all, how can we identify limiting beliefs?
The best way to identify limiting beliefs is to listen to your inner dialogue, the self-talk that happens inside your head. Sometimes a good way to get started can be a journal where you write down your thoughts, especially in moments when you held back, doubted yourself, or faced a setback. Take your time to dive deeper and pay special attention to any thoughts that are negative or self-limiting.
Here are some more examples of common limiting beliefs about health:
“I have no self-control.”
“I have a slow metabolism.”
“I’ll get fat if I eat this.” etc.
2. Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs.
Once you have identified the limiting beliefs you want to address, you have to look at where they come from and after that, question them. Many of our limiting beliefs originate from childhood experiences. As young children, we accept everything we hear our parents say as true. Messages like “You are like your father, you have bad genetics.” can influence the way we think about ourselves and our capabilities.
Negative or traumatic experiences can also lead to the belief, that you’re not capable of success or that certain things are just unattainable for you. For example, if you have tried to lose weight countless times and you always gained back all the weight (or more), it’s quite probable that you start thinking that you’ll never be able to lose weight.
Lastly, cultural beliefs also play an important role, when it comes to the formation of limiting beliefs. Some popular cultural values you have probably heard before are “Women should not lift weights, or they will start looking manly.” or “Fats make you fat.” Even though these statements have not proven to be true, many people still hold on to these values.
Once you understand where your limiting beliefs come from it is usually much easier to challenge them. Is it really true that you are too old to lose weight? Do you really think you have no time to work out or to prepare healthy meals? Start looking around you for examples to prove your convictions wrong. If your belief is about your own capabilities, look for any past experiences or personal qualities in yourself that contradict these beliefs.
3. Create New, Empowering Beliefs.
If you finally want to be successful, it’s not enough to get rid of your limiting beliefs, you have to create new ones. For this, you first have to clearly define your goals. Like that, you can shape your new, positive beliefs, so they help achieve those goals. The more specific your goals and your new beliefs are the better. This way it’ll be much easier to reinforce them and finally, they’ll become almost automatic.
For example, your limiting belief could be: “I don’t have enough time to work out, so I’ll never be able to lose weight.” This belief is probably based on past experiences, during which you didn’t get to work out because you felt overwhelmed by your personal and professional obligations.
It wouldn’t be a good idea to simply replace this belief with the following new belief: “I can make time to work out, so I will be able lose weight.” It would be very difficult suddenly change your actions based on this new belief, because it’s not specific enough, so it’s not easy to prove right. Instead, make your goal very specific and attainable in a short period of time, for example: “I want to be able to finish a 5k race in three months’ time.” So your new belief could be: “I am able to run 3 times a week because I can get up 45 minutes earlier on those days.”
Once you start seeing results, it will be easy to create other, more generic, empowering beliefs, like “I am capable and continuously improving.” or “I can always make my own health a priority.”
4. Use Visualization & Positive Affirmation.
Positive self-talk has to be part of your new routine, as consistency is essential if you want to create new habits. Remember to phrase your positive self-talk in the present tense, as if you’re already experiencing the positive outcome.
Another great tool you can use to challenge your negative self-talk and create new neural pathways in your mind is visualization. If you want to practice visualization, find a quiet and comfortable place, where you can be completely relaxed and won’t be interrupted. Practice and relaxation techniques you know (eg deep breathing) to calm your mind and body before starting the visualization.
Close your eyes and start imagining your desired outcomes as detailed as possible. Try to engage all your senses. What do you see when you are crossing the finish line of the 5k race you trained for? What do you hear? And most importantly, how does it make you feel?
Involving your emotions is very important, as you will be more likely to believe in your visions of success if you emotionally connect to them. Really enjoy the emotions of joy, pride, and excitement during your visualization. By vividly imagining these positive scenarios, your brain starts forming new neural connections that support your desired beliefs and counteract the negative self-talk associated with your old, limiting beliefs.
5. Take Action.
Now everything is prepared for you to take action. If you have set an attainable and specific goal, it’s easy to make a realistic plan of how you can get there.
Let’s use the same example as before. You want to be able to run a 5k race three months from now. To get there you will have to train 3 times a week for around 45 minutes in total. Be very specific, when you decide on which days and at what times you are going to train. Think about what you have to stop doing in order to have the time to work out.
Once your plan is set, start going. Every workout you manage to complete will reinforce your new way of thinking and actively contradict your old, limiting beliefs. Those new beliefs will be a very helpful tool in the future, as they will push you to keep going, almost automatically. You will no longer need to depend on motivation when you are working towards your goals, as you will have established new habits, new routines, and a new way of thinking, which together make a much more powerful combination than motivation alone.
6. Bonus tip: Prepare for setbacks.
Whenever you are planning to work towards new goals, it’s very important you mentally prepare yourself for setbacks. Every journey to success has ups and downs, it’s completely normal. But it’s not enough to know this, you need to have the right mindset when those challenges hit, but you also need a real plan of what you are going to do when that happens.
What happens if one day you don’t manage to do your workout as planned? You could decide to simply skip it, as long as it is just once, and keep going whenever you have your next workout planned. But what happens if you get sick and can’t work out for several weeks? It’s in these situations that many people give up on their goals. But if you have already established positive beliefs about your capabilities and you have a precise plan of what you will do when you are faced with challenges, you will find a way to keep going no matter what happens.
The great thing is that once you manage to overcome the first obstacles on your way, more new and empowering beliefs will take shape in your brain: “I have all the resources in me to successfully overcome challenges.”, “I see difficulties as learning opportunities”, or “I am able to make a consistent effort towards my goals even when I am faced with challenges”.
How To Overcome Limiting Beliefs: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Limiting beliefs are negative thought patterns that hold you back from reaching your potential and achieving your goals. They hinder our personal growth and limit your success by imposing mental barriers.
They can originate from childhood experiences, cultural influences, past failures, and comparisons with others. Our mind creates them to protect us from failure.
After you have clearly identified your limiting beliefs, challenge them, replace them with positive ones, practice self-awareness, visualize success, and use positive affirmations.
By vividly imagining these positive scenarios, your brain starts forming new neural connections that support your desired beliefs and counteract the negative self-talk associated with your old, limiting beliefs.
Yes, a supportive environment will reinforce positive beliefs and counteract negative beliefs, that originated in past experiences and are no longer true or functional.
Summary
If you have negative, limiting beliefs about your own capability to lose weight, you will never achieve your goal, no matter which diet you try. First, you have to challenge these negative beliefs and substitute them with new and empowering thoughts.
Remember that this process takes time, consistency, and real commitment to your goals. You have to practice your new beliefs with positive self-talk and visualization on a daily basis if you want to achieve a real change in your mindset and it’s definitely easier said than done.
But always think of what you will be able to achieve once you replaced your limiting beliefs: You will start believing in yourself again, you will feel capable to reach almost any goal you set for yourself, and you will be much more successful in many areas of your life.
To recap, these are the 5 strategies to overcome limiting beliefs:
- Identify Your Limiting Beliefs.
- Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs.
- Create New, Empowering Beliefs.
- Use Visualization & Positive Affirmation.
- Take Action.
- Bonus Tip: Prepare For Setbacks.