Self Limiting Beliefs – Part 2 The Power of Positive Affirmations

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

Last week we discussed self limiting beliefs. To re-cap, self limiting beliefs are those beliefs based on fears and doubts which hold us back from accomplishing things we want or need to. These negative thoughts center on things like a lack of ability or self doubt, and we end up giving power to these thoughts by allowing them to turn into beliefs. The more we repeat these beliefs in our heads, the more powerful they become.

There are the various negative impacts and effects self limiting beliefs can have. For example, they can: 1) lead to procrastination and laziness; 2) destroy and dampen hopes and aspirations; 3) bring down morale; 4) lead to losing complete focus on goals, dreams and aspiration; 5) cause deviation from an intended successful path/goal; etc. The negative impacts are limitless.

One way to remove negative self limiting beliefs is to change them consciously until the changes become subconscious. If I say, “Don’t think about pink elephants,” what happens? You think about pink elephants; even if it’s brief, you still think of pink elephants. It’s important to realize that energy follows consciousness; what we focus on determines our reality. Think about what you want out of life, your career, etc. Something interesting about those self limiting beliefs that might be holding you back from those things you just thought of: they are just thoughts inside your head! If you are able to think negatively about something, you can most certainly and instantly change your thought process to think positively about that very same thing.

In a recent book I read by Brian Tracy called “Kiss that Frog,” Tracy presents one way to rid ourselves of self limiting beliefs by utilizing positive affirmations. He details this technique with the 3 “Ps” of positive affirmations; always phrase your affirmations as Personal, with Presence, and in the Positive tense. In the Personal sense you start each metal command with “I”. Next, since your subconscious mind can only accept commands in the present tense, for the Present sense you reframe each affirmation in a current real event with your desired results achieved. For example, “I am a Presidents’ Club winner with the highest new product sales in the company.” These words are accepted by your subconscious, which results in changing your self-limiting beliefs to positive beliefs about yourself. Finally, the affirmations must be Positive as the subconscious mind cannot process negative commands. For example, you affirm to yourself, “I am a quota buster,” rather than “I will not miss my quota.” This is a very subtle difference syntax, but one that can impact your subconscious mind.

In summary, a positive affirmation is simply a positive statement specifically targeted to re-programming an existing negative belief. Remember, any thought you repeat often enough will in time become programmed in your subconscious mind and turn into a belief. If a new, positive statement is repeated enough times, in time it will be strong enough to over-ride the existing negative one.

Share this post

Self Limiting Beliefs – The crocodiles in our mind

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

The crocodile attack claiming the most lives occurred during the Battle of Ramree on February 19, 1945, in what is now Burma. 900 Imperial Japanese soldiers, in an attempt to retreat from the Royal Navy and rejoin a larger battalion of Japanese Infantry, were forced to cross 10 miles of mangrove swamps containing thousands of crocodiles. By the next morning, of the original 900, only 19 succeeded. We each have mental swamplands to cross on the road to success, each equipped with crocodiles lurking in the form of self limiting beliefs. Self limiting beliefs, like hungry lurking crocodiles, can and will eat you alive on the pursuit of success—if you let them!

Our greatest challenges to success will always be the ones we create in our minds. As an exercise finish these statements: “Never at talk to ________.” “Don’t ask so many _______.” “Always eat your ________.”.“Always wear clean ________.” “Keep your elbows off the ________.” “Don’t make me pull this ________ over!” *(*A personal favorite after the recent family road trip.)

How were we able to finish each statement? We have heard these multiple times since childhood; although harmless, they can become beliefs that condition how we act and live. When do they become destructive? When they limit our ability to reach our full potential, which is what defines a self limiting belief. For example, if you have allowed certain assumptions or perspectives to keep you from reaching a specific goal, such as: I’m not good enough; I may never be able to succeed; other people are better than me; I’m probably going to fail; etc.

All beliefs, even the destructive and self limiting ones, are executed by the subconscious mind. This is both the strength and the Achilles heel of the subconscious mind; because while it’s able to automatically carry out complex tasks, it cannot distinguish between beliefs that serve you and those that don’t. It is up to you to become conscious of your limiting beliefs and learn to overcome them by consciously reprogramming your subconscious mind.

An entire society or company (including the company you work for) can collaboratively be influenced by self limiting beliefs. For example, prior to May 6th, 1954, everyone in sports believed it was impossible to run a mile under 4 minutes. And because everyone believed it, it was true – no one was able to break this record. But there was one athlete willing to go against the grain; Roger Bannister believed he COULD break the 4 minute mile. Even more amazingly within one year of Bannister completing the mile in 3:59, nearly every professional runner had broken the 4 minute mile. Why? They now believed it was possible because Bannister had proved it.

Your company can and will become the leader in the industry. Do you have any self-limiting beliefs getting in the way of believing this statement? It comes down to the crocodiles we allow to harbor in the five inches between our ears. Don’t let those crocodiles stand between you and success.

Stay tuned as next coming weeks I will be discussing ways I believe we can overcome self limiting beliefs.

Share this post

Self Discipline and Persistence

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

Napoleon Hill (1883 – 1970) was an American author whom is thought of as the father of the modern literature genre of personal-success, and is widely considered to be one of “the greats” in the genre. He has inspired many famous success literature gurus such as Darren Hardy, Brian Tracy, and Zig Zigglar. In 1937, Hill wrote “Think and Grow Rich,” which has sold over 20 million copies to date and depicts the key attribute of success as “Persistence.” To quote Hill’s book, “Persistence is the character to man, as carbon is to steel.”

When we hit an obstacle or major setback during the pursuit of a goal, it can be an incredible emotional letdown. During this period we feel discouraged and/or self pity. We will likely ask, “Why me?” Don’t be surprised when setbacks happen, they can and will happen to everyone multiple times. Instead, expect disappointments and setbacks will occur as part of the road to success. We all need to remember it’s not how far we fall, but how far we bounce back. Resilience is an acquired trait, so we should aim to bounce back, each time more quickly that the last. Resiliency in times of challenges is the key to long term success. The primary difference between “winners” and “losers” in life is simple: winners never quit, and quitters never win.

Persistence is true self-discipline in action. I was recently told of a sales rep who lost a new product account and was extremely disappointed. After discussing this disappointment with his manager, the two decided to schedule a field visit, and the day wouldn’t be until he attained at least one new evaluation. By 4:45 PM they had made some progress, but nothing solid was established. They had a choice: to call it a day and pick up where they left off tomorrow, or to make one more call; they chose the latter. They found an account on the outskirts of town that purchases a nominal $300 of disposables each year and decided to make it their last sales call of the day. When entering the account, they ran into a preoperative manager and a general surgeon. Long story short, they converted all the account’s disposables and gained a commitment for a new evaluation!

Setbacks are merely road bumps on the road to success. When we face setbacks and challenges, optimism enables us to find the will to persist and refuse the all to easy course of blaming others or making excuses. When we make excuses and blame others it only makes us feel weaker, reducing our ability to be effective in a challenging situation. Take responsibility when setbacks show up in your day to day—no matter what. Look for the actions leading to the unfavorable outcome; how can you do it differently next time? Resolve to focus on the now and the future with a solution, rather than the past and who is at fault. The difference between those who fail and the successful is also simple; those who fail feel sorry for themselves, whereas the successful look for the good and lesson to help them in the future. As Hill wrote in, “Within every problem or obstacle lays the seed of an equal or greater opportunity or benefit. Your job is to find it!”

Finally and most importantly, we all need work on committing to ourselves in advance that we will never give up. I know this is something that has played a hand in others successes, and I can tell you with confidence that if you commit to yourself that your long term success is almost guaranteed. Remember, nothing can stop you, but yourself! Every time your self-discipline pushes you to persist, you increase your self confidence; you will not only feel stronger and more powerful, but most importantly you will be unstoppable!

Share this post

Redefine your life and career – Fail!

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 1 Comment

History abounds with examples of people persevering in the face of adversity, as well as those who gave up too quickly. A prime example of giving up to quickly in electrosurgery is William Bovie; he decided to move on from electrosurgery and sold his patent for a dollar. To draw from sports, professional athletes Wayne Gretzky and Tom Brady did not have the physical attributes to make it in the “major leagues” when they started out. Yet they both overcame any obstacles in their way; combined, they led their respective teams to seven championships. We can learn from Gretzky, Brandy and Bovie by remembering that even though the road to success is riddled with obstacles, they are to be learned from and overcome; obstacles lead us to uncovering and honing our abilities, because exertion gives us power, and out of difficulties new strengths are born

Next, let’s look at the career of a prominent historical figure that had multiple failures before attaining peak performance. This person began his career by starting his own business; he went broke, not just once but twice. He then decided to try his hand at politics, losing his first bid for legislator; in his second attempt he won. Soon after, his sweetheart died, which resulted in an extended period of depression and the loss of his bid for the speaker of the state legislator; he was then defeated in the nomination for congress. Three years later he was elected to congress, but lost his bid for speaker again. From there things still went wrong: he was passed over for a land officer job, defeated for a position the U.S. senate, defeated for nomination for vice president, and lost another state senate race. Finally in 1860 he was elected president of the United States. Who was this person? Abraham Lincoln; arguably the greatest President this country has ever elected!

We can learn from these examples and many others by realizing that failure is our greatest teacher, so long as we are not crushed by it and learn from it. Are you a learner or non-learner? When you make a mistake, do you learn from it and don’t do it again? Also, when you do something correct do you take note and try to repeat it? In other words, do you look at the journey to success as a tunnel or funnel? In a funnel you keep excluding actions and choices that don’t work, while repeating the ones that do as they traverse the funnel, until you hit your stride and launch yourself into success!

A string of failures do not lead to more failures, as every failure has the potential to be last one. Anyone that can sit at the feet of failure, humble themselves by learning from it, exert themselves gaining power, will eventually reach peak performance. In summary, Failure + Perseverance + Exertion = Success. Someone once said, “Failure is the path of least resistance.” Stay the course while learning from your mistakes and triumphs by taking every opportunity to Grow, Grow, and Grow! If you have a dream, believe in it and why you are doing it.

Share this post

Success – An Ethical and Moral Issue

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Sean Moore | | Leave a comment

Last week we discussed the mindset of success. This week I am going to look at success from another perspective. At a young age my parents taught me a view of being successful which differed from the norm that is rooted in just pursuing goals/objectives. They instilled in me that to be truly successful, the goals we pursue should be rooted in our lives as ethical and moral obligations that we are highly committed to; things like our family, the company we work for, ourselves, and most importantly our legacy.

In a recent training I asked a group of new hires how much of a particular new product we just launched that they thought they would sell in 2012. Without thinking twice, one trainee very confidently stated, “###K.” I then asked her, “Do you think you can double that figure by the end of 2012?” Her response: “Anything is possible if you really want it; so yes!” Next I asked her, “How about a million? Could you sell $1 million of this new product in the next 8 months?” The look she gave me was priceless; as badly as she wanted to yes, her face was riddled with doubt, and she admitted selling $1 million would be impossible. Keep Reading »

Share this post