If you’re reading this, chances are there’s something in your relationship to food, your relationship to your body, your health, or your life that you want to improve upon. And it’s pretty likely that you’ve been struggling in this area for some time– one year, ten years, maybe even longer.
It’s this desire for more and better that brings you here, looking for solutions. And we think that’s awesome. No matter how long you’ve struggled, it’s that desire that will ultimately fuel your path to success.
But first you have to get out of your own way.
Before you can seek solutions and break through external barriers– the circumstances of your life– you have to address the barriers that live within you. These are your limiting beliefs.
Belief is a prerequisite for action. And action is a prerequisite for change.
Because if you do not believe in yourself, why would you devote even a single ounce of energy into taking action?
Exactly.
But here’s the thing. So many limiting beliefs are sneaky because of the nature of beliefs themselves. They’re thoughts we’ve had over and over again so many damn times that we start to believe that they’re FACTS or TRUTHS.
I often say that your beliefs are like the carpet in your house. You don’t walk in every single day and think, “Wow, what an interesting carpet. I think I like it, but I wonder if it might look better in a different color.” No. You walk in, tread all over it, and never give it a second thought.
Here are some of the sneakiest, most damaging limiting beliefs that we hear in the women we interview for NF: Foundations:
I don’t have enough time.
If you have enough time to read this post, you have plenty of time to take care of yourself. (You may just have to redefine what “taking care of yourself” looks like for a period.)
The real truth here is that you make time for what’s important to you. And if your health and happiness is important to you, you’ll do just that and/or you’ll seek out someone to hold you accountable to doing so.
I don’t have enough money.
Here’s another place where a lack mindset is not serving you. The same way you can get resourceful with your time, you can get resourceful with your money.
That might mean trading in your expensive Pure Barre membership for one at the YMCA so you can have more in the budget for healthy groceries. Or it might mean putting a bit more forethought into grocery shopping and meal prep so you don’t spend as much money dining out. It might mean asking for NF: Foundations as a birthday present from a family member. It might just mean committing to a weekly budget check in versus spending mindlessly with both eyes closed.
I’ve already failed so many times.
Ah, yes. This is where we get to the crux of all limiting beliefs. Fear. Specifically, the fear of failure. Even more specifically, the fear of failure that’s generated by past experiences.
Here’s the thing, without fear of failure, none of these beliefs would matter. If you knew you could not fail at breaking free from the diet-binge-guilt cycle to improve your health and confidence, you’d make the time. You’d find the money. You’d forget all about how many times you’d failed in the past.
But our fear holds us back. It prevents us from believing in ourselves, which keeps us from taking action, and so we stay stuck. And because we’ve been stuck for so long, our fear just continues to grow.
It’s a vicious cycle.
So what now?
The first step in dismantling and pushing past your limiting beliefs is to know that they exist (check) and understand what they are. I encourage you to sit down for 15 minutes and note every single belief about yourself that you can think of.
The good news is that awareness is a very important first step that you cannot discount. The less awesome news is that it gets a bit harder from there. Start the process of breaking through these damaging beliefs by getting objective. Where does this belief come from? What evidence supports this belief? And what evidence is there against it?
We’ve created a worksheet to help guide you. And if you find that this is work you want to continue this work with the support of expert coaches and a loving community, apply to NF: Foundations.
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