“I believe, therefore I am.” ~ (not quite) Descartes

There are some very good reasons for this, backed up by neuroscience. 

But before we get to that, a personal example: 

What if I believe that nobody is watching/listening/consuming/cares about my content, therefore I am inconsistent in creating content? 

This belief that nobody is interacting with my content, when it reinforces the habit of not creating anything, results in exactly what I was expecting to happen- nobody is reading my content. 

It’s a very short feedback loop, right? 

It seems so obvious that this is a limiting belief that I need to clear if I am to move forward with my online business.

But here’s the thing- trying to clear our limiting beliefs can be a fruitless activity, or even make things worse! Why? Neuroscience. In a nutshell, neuroplasticity, or the brain’s amazing capacity to grow, means that the more you do something, the more the pathway between the stimulus (I believe) and the response (therefore I am) develops into what the brain recognizes as the easiest thing to do. And this is great, if that pathway is a liberating one… and not so great if it is a limiting one. 

I’m a true fan of George Kao’s approach to business. He recently posted a video on this very topic which spurred me into action (you can watch it here ). To summarize,  I can think about this all day long, or I can journal about it,  and I can try to convince myself of something different (my work has value, I have something to say, readers are flocking to my website in droves to partake in my eloquence, etc. ) but in fact, by focusing on my limiting beliefs, I am reinforcing the very thinking I am trying to overcome! That’s how neuroplasticity works. Focusing on our limiting beliefs lays down deeper neural pathways between belief (I suck at this) and action (I’m not even going to try). 

I saw this all the time in my work as a teacher.

Kids get stuck on something difficult they’re learning,  and the next thing you know they’ve convinced themselves that they can’t do it, are never going to be able to do it, and they give up on themselves. They develop a fixed mindset, when what we need to move forward in life is a growth mindset. Sound familiar? That’s because it applies to adults, too! There is tons of information out there on the interwebs about this. Check out the work of Carol Dweck if you want to know more.

So what’s the answer? 

The only way out of this ever-tightening loop is to do something radical- a 180 degree  turn. Gently, lovingly, firmly, turn yourself around and head off in another direction. No looking back.

The key is continuous, consistent action which goes against the current beliefs you are trying to change. 

You can’t wait for the beliefs to catch up before taking action.

What would it mean to your businesses if you employed these principles? 

For me, moving away from the limiting belief that nobody is reading my words would mean writing it anyway. If I wanted to make it even better for myself, I would write it with joy, because I liked to do it, and because it gave me pleasure to do so. And, if I did it consistently, followers or crickets, eventually it would become my habitual structure (George’s word), and my beliefs in its meaningfulness would start to catch up to the action I was taking. 

It sounds so simple.

The way to get away from our limiting beliefs is simply to take action. So why is it so hard to do?

Why is there such a thing as a fixed mindset and limiting beliefs in the first place, if the way out is so simple? 

It’s about the rut.

A rut, by definition, is deep. If you’re driving your car in the rut of the road, it takes a significant force and steady hand to get out of it, and if you lose focus, your wheels are pulled back down into it. The brain is much the same, and some of our most frequently-traveled neural pathways are steep, and tough to get out of. Can you think your way out of a rut on the road? Can you talk it over or visualize your way out of it? Nope, ah…no. The only way out is to grab hold of the steering wheel and force the car wheels out of it. And then to do it again when you slide back down there. 

The answer is consistency.

An action repeated at regular intervals over time becomes a new habit. Habits don’t form if we only take action once- this one blog post, if not followed by many others over time, won’t become routine, or do much for my business. One a week for a year- that’s consistent, and could have far-reaching effects on my business visibility, authority, and progress. At the very least, I am likely to get better at doing it!

As a former elementary school teacher, I have seen my fair share of oppositional behaviour. An example which springs to mind is that of a 4th grader who, when asked to join the class in line so that we could move down the hall in an orderly manner (the bane of many a teacher’s existence), chose instead to sit down on the floor and refuse to move. On the day in question, this behaviour wasn’t appreciated by me in any way. Today, however, it demonstrates exactly the level of defiance, of refusal to go with the flow, that I am talking about- we could all use a bit more oppositional behaviour when it comes to dealing with our own limiting beliefs.

We all need to dig in our heels and refuse to do what those beliefs are telling us to do. 

Back to George for a minute. In the video that spurred this post, he shared how he had overcome his own limiting beliefs by challenging himself to 100 days of doing the thing he believed he was terrible at. By about Day 40, he was feeling a lot different about himself, and I imagine that by Day 100, his beliefs had gone from limiting to liberating. 

So. You know what comes next. 

I am challenging myself to post something on some social media platform for the next 100 days, weekends exempted. 

I can’t be too picky about what it is. 

It can’t take 4 days to create, like this post has (because I’ve been trying to talk myself out of it, and dealing with perfectionism because somebody might actually read this piece of writing- what will they think of me, what if I got it wrong, did I over-use that metaphor?….cue wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth). 

I just have to do it. Every. Single. Day. 

Limiting belief says “you have nothing of value to say”. I say “oh ya? Hear me roar!”

Want to join me with your own challenge, or encourage me along the way, or help keep me accountable? Click those social icons below and find me in the fray.