Overcoming Limiting Beliefs Through Stories
Plenty of fairy tales revolve around characters who are trapped or cursed and have to break free. While you might not be cursed, let me put it to you another way. Have you ever had a goal that you just can’t seem to achieve for one reason or another? Unless you’re some sort of superhuman, the answer is probably yes. If this seems to happen to you more often than not, it might be time to examine the limiting beliefs that could be holding you back.
Limiting beliefs are thoughts or mindsets about yourself, the world, or how you interact with others that prevent you from achieving your goals. They’re kind of like the enchanted prisons or curses that heroes have to overcome in stories. To give some examples of limiting beliefs and how to break free, let’s turn to fairy tales and how these stories can symbolize breaking free from limiting beliefs or self-imposed constraints to unlock your fullest potential.
- Ego Depletion – Sleeping Beauty
Do you find yourself vegging out on the couch after work because you’re just done? You can’t seem to go on, and so nothing gets done, not even your goals? You may be suffering from ego depletion.
Ego depletion is the myth that our willpower is limited, or a depletable resource. Think of it in terms of Sleeping Beauty. She can’t seem to push through her curse and defeat the Wicked Fairy and instead sleeps for one hundred years. The curse of ego depletion is the thought that we can run out of willpower if we overexert ourselves.
Willpower is an infinite resource. If we treat lack of motivation as temporary, we can overcome the limiting belief of ego depletion. Defeat the Wicked Fairy and go get those goals!
- Inner Critic – Pinnochio
How often have you used negative language towards yourself? So many of us have an inner critic that does nothing but tell us all of the things that we’re doing wrong. This only serves to take away our confidence and reduce productivity.
The good news is our inner critic can be trained. Treat your inner critic like Pinnochio’s conscience, Jiminy Cricket. Yes, he can give reasonable advice that might tell Pinnochio not to do something that will cause him harm, but he also encourages Pinnochio!
Jiminy Cricket is Pinnochio’s friend as well as his conscience, so talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend. Use positive affirmations (which have been proven to reshape your mindset) and encouraging language to help yourself reach your goals.
- Imposter Syndrome – Cinderella
As you experience success, you might feel like you’re not good enough. This is known as imposter syndrome. But to beat imposter syndrome, you need to recognize it and consciously overcome it.
Imagine that you’re Cinderella. You’re coming from rags to the ball. You meet the prince, who falls in love with you, and wants to bring you from your lowly existence into success and riches. Cinderella never had the thought that she wasn’t worthy of this rags-to-riches story. She celebrated her success and kept being kind and kept growing as a person. That’s exactly what you need to do.
To overcome imposter syndrome, look at your life over the last few years. What have you accomplished? How have you grown as a person? Celebrate those successes! Share those successes, as well as any failures, with those closest to you. Listen to their own successes and failures and have an honest conversation about your struggles. Understand that you worked hard for your achievements, and they didn’t happen overnight. You deserve them, so celebrate them.
- Distractions – Jack and the Beanstalk
Even if it seems productive, distractions are anything that takes you away from achieving your goals. This is arguably the biggest limiting belief we deal with on a regular basis. Seeing a distraction for what it really is can be a tricky thing.
When Jack was sent to market to sell the family cow to feed his family, that seemed like a pretty straightforward goal, right? But instead, he sold his cow for magic beans, and his mother was understandably distraught. However, if Jack had let himself stay distracted by the easy goal of selling his cow for money, he never would have gone on his adventure up the beanstalk, he never would have gotten the goose that laid the golden egg, the bag of gold, or the harp, and he never would have become unimaginably wealthy.
It can sometimes be difficult to see the true distraction in a situation. Doing dishes or laundry is productive, isn’t it? But is it what you’re really trying to achieve in the moment, or is it helping you procrastinate a more difficult, but worthwhile goal?
Internal triggers are those distractions that help us escape something difficult or that makes us feel incompetent or unworthy, while external triggers are anything in our environment that pulls focus, whether that’s family or coworkers, or social media notifications. We need to get past both kinds of distractions to be successful.
To do that, try making commitments, even if it’s just to yourself. Making commitments helps to keep us accountable, and more likely to do the tasks we need to do. Build those tasks into your calendar. If you have specific time for them, you know when you’re going to do them, rather than trying to find time to do them, which might not happen.
The most important aspect of overcoming limiting beliefs is identifying them. Consider what you want to accomplish but maybe aren’t working towards. Why aren’t you working towards that goal? Look at the justification you give for not working towards it. Really examine it. Then question the logic and truth of that belief. Is the belief true? Does the belief serve you? If the answer to either of these questions is no, create alternative beliefs and test them.
It’s more than acceptable to change the beliefs that are no longer serving you. That’s part of growing and becoming who you’re meant to be. It also makes it easier to achieve your goals and be successful. If the heroes of fairy tales can do it, so can you!
What limiting beliefs are holding you back? What enchanted prison or curse is keeping you locked up? How can you break free to achieve your goals?