Have you ever listed your limiting beliefs? One challenge is that they often reside deep within our minds, masquerading as “facts” or as subtle background “realities” that we have “known” to be “reality” for so long we no longer question them.
I’ve chosen to be a self-labeled introvert for most of my life. But how much of that is real? And how much of it is a belief I’ve created and reinforced over the years? And does that self-labeling serve me? Help me be my best self? Help me grow and expand?
While it is true that I like my solitude, my quiet reading time in the mornings, and I do detest mingling at cocktail hours/networking events it is also true that I do have an extroverted side that I can access; I enjoy people watching and I greatly look forward to seeing the folks I work with daily.
So I’ve decided to tell myself a new story, give myself a new label: that I’m an interesting blend (a bi-vert?) neither one nor the other, a bit of both. I’ve found when motivating myself to change, a gentle alteration in direction works best for me, makes the story I tell myself ring truest. Even a few degrees change in course adds up to great distance over time.
Closing quotes:
“Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.” – Cheryl Strayed
“We learn our belief systems as very little children, and then we move through life creating experiences to match our beliefs.” – Louise Hay
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, 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.” – Mahatma Gandhi
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier