How to convert limiting beliefs into positive beliefs and shape up your life?

Mahatma Gandhi quoted “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning “. That is the power of belief. Belief can be defined as the feeling of conviction about anything. It is the assumption of the fact which may be true or false. It can be imaginary. It seems to be logical and correct. But the fact is that belief can build up or destroy one’s capability.
To understand the definition of belief, let us look some examples. Some of you may have a belief that a particular color dress shall give favorable incidence whenever you wear or you may have believed that writing examination with particular pen shall give you more marks. Those beliefs are feeling of conviction and need not be true, yet we believe.

We can observe from the biography of successful entrepreneurs and famous people in all orbits, they induced a belief in their capability or in their products / services irrespective of the challenges. That belief only made them to execute all the actions and attract all the resources.

If the belief is so powerful, why cannot everyone have positive belief? How the belief is being formed in our mind? What are the factors influencing belief within us? As some beliefs are limiting us to step up further, how can we identify the limiting belief and convert it into Positive, empowered belief? We will be discussing those aspects in detail.

How beliefs are formed within us:

Let us understand how the beliefs are being formed within us.As we are aware that we receive and process the information through five senses. The same event is being interpreted by two people in different way. For example, a scene from the movie is being received, enjoyed and interpreted by two persons in a different way. From the same scene, each person starts perceiving different beliefs.

Similarly from our childhood, we have been experiencing different perceptions of many events and believing something within us. We receive most impactful experience and perception from our parents, schools, friends, the environment wherein we have been brought up. For example, a child is brought up in an environment in which hard work is valued most, the child started believing that hard work only brings success in Life. Suppose the child is brought up in an environment in which money is lavishly spent and need is satisfied, the child started believing that with money, anything can be done in the world. It depends on the environment in which the person lives. You may note that two brothers or sisters in the same family may have different beliefs.

How to identify beliefs as positive or limiting:

Let us understand how to identify beliefs as positive or limiting beliefs and use it to our advantage. As beliefs are formed within us, there are no right or wrong beliefs. We need to look whether the beliefs are useful to us for leveraging our potential, helpful for our growth and it is not hurting others. If the belief is useful for our growth and it is not affecting others, then it is Positive belief which we can reinforce further. For example, if you believe that speaking softly helps to improve your interpersonal skill, enhance it further, as it is purely your belief, you believe that it helps in your growth and it is not hurting others. The same belief may not be working for others, in fact others may perceive it as an area for improvement.

Similarly, some beliefs are not useful for your growth and affect others, it is limiting beliefs. You need to work on either to eliminate completely or converting those limiting beliefs into positive beliefs. The point is that you need to analyze your belief and conclude whether it is useful to you or not. That is self introspection and more powerful process. We look into aspects of converting limiting beliefs into positive beliefs.

Let us understand the process of converting the limiting belief into positive belief. The six step process is deep self introspection and time consuming, but at the end of it, you will get self awareness which is long lasting and very powerful in changing your life.

Step1: Identify the limiting belief:

Take a piece of paper and make 6 columns. As a first step, identify the limiting belief which is limiting your aspiration or pulling down from achieving a goal. For example, you believe that you are not good at time management and write as such in the first column.

Step 2: Elaborate the belief statement:

In the second step, you rephrase or elaborate the belief statement further. In our example, what does poor time management mean to you, what is your understanding about this statement? More you elaborate your belief statement in detail, more you will get the clarity about your belief.

Step 3: Associate the belief with Pain :

As human beings, generally we are doing all activities either for enhancing pleasure or avoiding the pain. Now, as a third step, write what is the pain or problem you are having due to the belief. In our example, write what is the loss or sufferings you are undergoing due to poor time management. Once you can able to associate the pain with your beliefs, you get stronger, compelling need to overcome the pain.

Step 4: Identify the source of belief :

In the fourth step, identify the source of the belief. Ask yourself that from where you get the reference for having such limiting belief within you. The answer to this question may be the incident or the people from where you might have got the belief. The incident might have happened in your childhood or some years back, which may not be relevant today. By knowing the source of origin, you can see the relevance of such beliefs in today’s context and you may be fully convinced to go away from such useless beliefs. Even if it is not possible to completely ignore such beliefs, you will look for the options to make it more positive.

Step 5: Convert limiting belief into positive belief :
In the fifth step, convert the limiting beliefs into positive beliefs. This can be done either convince you to change it as positive or list down the series of resolution to work upon.

Step 6: Associate the pleasure with positive belief :
In the last step, associate the pleasure you will be enjoying if you implement the resolutions or having with positive beliefs. You will get internal motivation to implement the new action or resolutions by associating pleasure with the positive belief.

As said, the above 6 step process is time consuming and reflective process, but powerful and long lasting. This process of converting limiting belief into positive belief will change your life.