The Fables You Write About Life And Business
For each experience in your life, both positive and negative, you create a meaning to the situation. That meaning is what we call a belief. A belief is something that you may perceive to be true but cannot be scientifically proven as true. Beliefs occur when we look at something from a one-sided, limited perspective. For example, if you look at a piece of paper straight on, it appears to be a white rectangle. Now you are quite certain that it is a white rectangle. You would stake your life on it and never change your mind. What if I look at the paper from the side and sees a long, white, thin line? I am looking at the same item and I am sure I’m seeing a line and not a rectangle. The two of us could debate forever about our differing viewpoints. Only when we are willing to look at the paper from a different angle or point of view do we see a new perspective. Both of us are right about our own out looks from our own specific perspectives. A belief is looking at something in only ONE WAY.
Beliefs that you have are really stories or fables you have written in your mind. They are not really true, they just seem true to you. You have written your story very convincingly and may perceive it to be true, but it is only true to you. If you want to be more in control of your thinking and internal limitations, the most important thing you can do is notice when you have a limiting belief. What limiting beliefs do you have?
Examples of Personal Limiting Beliefs:
- Math is hard for me.
- I will never be thin.
- I’ve never been good at details.
- I’m not a good ball player.
- I can’t do it.
- I’m not good enough.
- I am worthless.
- I’m not lovable.
- I am not a patient person.
- I can’t remember things very well.
- I am incapable of so many things.
Examples of Professional Liming Beliefs
- I can’t make money.
- I don’t know how to sell.
- I’ll never be good at business.
- I’m not lucky.
- I can’t manage my team.
- I am not able to make money.
- I don’t deserve money.
- I don’t know what to do next.
- I don’t have talent.
- I am not good at balancing my bank statements.
Make a list of your limiting beliefs. Look at your limiting beliefs and say: “I have written a fable that…” For example: “I have written a fable that I am unlovable.” Go down your entire list. Before each limiting belief say, “I have written a fable that…”
What happens if you put a question mark at the end of the liming beliefs statement? “I am unlovable?” “I don’t deserve success?” What answer do you give yourself to those questions?
Look at the belief from someone else’s perspective; someone that you respect. How would they feel? Put your belief on them and imagine how they would act. How do they handle the situation? How do they act differently? How would they think and feel about the same issue? If they feel differently about the same statement, then there must be more ways to look at it than from the stuck perspective you had.
Do these exercises shift your stories? Does your stuck belief begin to move a bit? Do you start to write a different ending to your fable? Notice small or large shifts in your thinking.
Look at your business in a new way. Thinking and believing differently can increase your revenue and decrease your costs. What possibilities does your business have that you hadn’t already acknowledged? How can you look at business in a way you hadn’t thought of before? Write new stories about your business and watch your profits soar.
