For many professionals, limiting thoughts or even negative beliefs haunt their minds. These have a limiting effect on self-confidence and success at work. I have observed this especially in women.
Our life experiences - essentially, our successes and failures - are shaped by two types of communication:
Our inner communication, which includes our ideas, our thoughts and our feelings.
And external communication, which includes words, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures and physical actions.
Every communication we are "involved" in is an action, a cause. Every communication, therefore, has an effect on ourselves and others.

In this blog, I will look at our inner communication.

What we do in life is determined by how we communicate with ourselves. In today's world, the quality of life depends on the quality of communication. What we imagine, what we say to ourselves, how we move and use the muscles in our body, what facial expression we put on, all determine how much of what we know we can use.

I'm not worth anything, I don't deserve this, I can't do it, I'm too stupid - negative beliefs are part of everyday life for many people. However, they keep us from using our potential to the fullest. Many of these beliefs originate from our childhood. However, they don't just stay in our childhood. They have great power and can strongly influence us into adulthood. Sometimes such basic assumptions about ourselves and our lives have such great power that we cannot become truly happy and successful. It is therefore worthwhile to take a closer look at these basic assumptions and check whether they really make sense for our lives.

Negative beliefs - what are they?

A belief is a sentence that you believe in and that you often repeat - at least inwardly. Such basic assumptions can be positive and strengthen you in your being and doing. Perhaps you already experienced a lot of encouragement in childhood and internalized that you are a valuable person and deserve love, appreciation and success. Such basic assumptions also influence your life, but they help you to use your potential and to go through life positively. Negative assumptions, however, have the opposite effect. The following basic assumptions can negatively influence your career:

I can't do it.
Others are always better.
I can't do this.
I don't deserve this.
I am unlucky.
No one supports me.

These basic assumptions about yourself and your career have nothing to do with reality. They are not facts that you simply have to accept. You may have heard these and similar sentences in your childhood and they have become learned or acquired basic assumptions. Later partners, friends or colleagues also have an influence on how we see ourselves. If we are told certain things over and over again, we eventually believe them ourselves. At some point, it becomes a deep conviction and we act and live accordingly. A belief system can also be much more subtle and have been formed through proverbs or certain experiences. It is important to recognize them and get to the bottom of them.

Belief determines success and failure

Whether you believe you can do something or you believe you can't do it - you are always right.

AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT:

It is significant to become aware of your own negative beliefs. Only when we know our own destructive beliefs can we be ready to let go of them because they limit us and are false.

Recognizing beliefs - how do I go about it?

If you want to change your basic beliefs, the first step is to recognize them. Sit down and write down the thoughts that come to your mind on topics such as success, work, friends, partnership, health and finances. Proverbs can also be an indication of a belief system.

Once you have a list ask yourself which of the beliefs are limiting, which are promoting?

Rank them in order of importance by evaluating each limiting and promoting belief against each other.

Then think about where this basic assumption could come from (this can be due to your parents, related to a failure or success, etc.).

How do you behave? How are you guided by a belief? You can also ask a good friend for help and ask them what belief they think you have. Question basic assumptions - are they true or not? Once you have identified your beliefs, the next step is to question them. Is the belief set true at all times? Does this belief prevent me from getting closer to my desires and goals or does it support me in doing so?  What does my situation today have in common with the situation back then? Ask yourself clarifying questions about the belief set, such as: What exactly is blocking me? What exactly is ridiculous or absurd? What consequences should I expect if I keep the belief? What impact does the belief have on my success? What impact does the belief have on my relationships? What "price" do I pay financially, emotionally and in terms of health? What has this belief set brought me so far?

Once you have identified beliefs that negatively influence your life, you can try to dissolve them.

Change or dissolve beliefs

You have found a belief system that totally slows you down and you want to change or dissolve it? There is no patent remedy for this. These basic assumptions are programming your brain. Well-trodden paths that your brain treads again and again in order to understand life. If you no longer like the old paths, you have to trample new ones into your brain. Question your negative assumptions.

This is often referred to as "reframing". Particularly stressful beliefs are reinterpreted, put into a different context and formed into a new set of beliefs. You will start to create a new belief

Conclusion

Negative beliefs can have a negative impact on our lives. But this is not a fate that you simply have to accept. If you learn to recognize basic assumptions and change them step by step, you can change your view of the world and influence your actions positively.

Choose the positive beliefs so that negative beliefs can no longer sabotage you. And then be patient: over time, the new assumptions will replace old motives.

We often make the mistake of thinking that highly successful people are so successful because they possess some special talent. But on closer inspection, we realize that the greatest talent these extraordinarily successful people possess beyond the average person is their ability to motivate themselves to action and their thinking is driven by positive beliefs.

Let´s recap:

Basically, we distinguish between two categories of beliefs:
Inhibiting or limiting beliefs. (e.g. too late now, I'm too young) and Encouraging, supportive beliefs (e.g. I know I can do this; I am a happy guy, I have many abilities).
Every action is preceded by a thought. Remember that your behaviour is the result of your state, and your state is the result of your thoughts, beliefs and physiology.

AND THINK ABOUT THIS EVERY DAY:

You have the power to change! A career coach can help you work on the topics so that you receive the support that will help you get ahead, right to the point. Contact me!

My course SPEAK UP! looks at this topic.

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