5 questions (and answers) about limiting beliefs

What are they?

Limiting beliefs are thoughts and ideas about oneself, other people, situations or the world that put boundaries on a person's actions. This could be self-protective based on past negative experiences, but they can also outstay their usefulness and hold a person in unproductive ways of thinking and doing. Limiting beliefs can often be recognised by all-or-nothing thinking, gross generalisation or over-simplification.

It is interesting that many of the articles I read in preparing this post used growth mindset as the opposite to self-limiting beliefs, which is a potentially useful perspective. Learn more about fixed and growth mindsets from Carol Dweck. Also, a book [LINK to book review for Ready] I read recently talked about the inner critic, which could be another way of thinking about limiting beliefs. If your internal monologue is stopping you from trying new things or taking the next step in your career, then it might be time to challenge those patterns.

What are some common limiting beliefs?

• 'I'm too young/old/new/needed to change jobs.'

• 'I can't teach maths/art/science/handwriting because I'm not good at it.'

• 'I could never be a leader because I don't like telling people what to do.'

I could go on and on, but if you want to read more examples have a look at this BetterUp post or this one on Medium.

Where do they come from?

Limiting beliefs can develop from formative experiences like family interactions, childhood beliefs, an unsuccessful first attempt, or negative messages in your school, community, work or society at large. Once they are internalised, it can be hard to pinpoint what initiated them. It might be so embedded that it doesn't even feel like a subjective thought, but rather like a fact or objective reality.

How to can you combat your own?

This can be really hard! First, you need to become conscious of them, developing awareness of the story you're telling yourself. Some people might want to delve into where their own beliefs came from. Maybe they can figure out who to blame or how to avoid limiting thoughts from sprouting again in the future. For me, I prefer to try to acknowledge the ones I have and reframe them so I can move on. This can be done by writing examples that are evidence to the contrary of the limiting belief or turning your 'what if' into 'what is'. For example, 'what if I don't get the leadership position because I'm not ready' could become 'what is it I need to be ready for the leadership position I want'.

Try to visualise attaining your goal by thinking about it in detail through as many of your senses as possible, which is known as Functional Imagery Training (FIT, learn more here). Your goal might be to get a promotion so before the interview, instead of thinking about how badly it could go or how awkward you feel talking about yourself, you could imagine walking in the room, feeling the soft chair as you sit and the damp glass of water. You might take a deep breath and smell your favourite flowers in a vase in the room and hear the click as the AC starts up. Hear the voice of the interviewer asking their first question and experience the slow, calming breath you take before answering.

Another option you could try is to deliberately do something that directly challenges the limiting belief. For example, if you procrastinate by telling yourself you're no good at writing reports, then you could write a low-stakes report (like a family travelogue) before starting on the real thing. Limiting beliefs often come from fear so contradicting them like this could be a step toward 'do[ing] one thing every day that scares you' (fun fact: the quote is attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt originally).

David Richo, in his book Ready, suggests turning the inner critic into the inner ally by changing the 'always' or 'never' in your inner voice to the more realistic 'sometimes' or 'often'. This makes it a statement of neutral fact rather than overarching self-reproach. He also offers a useful exercise of visualising the negative outcome(s) of a decision in one hand and the positive outcome(s) in the other. Look at the positive one and picture yourself being grateful. Look at the negative and see yourself being courageous in whatever happens.

What does research say about limiting beliefs?

• 'In clinical psychology, metareasoning (reflecting on one's mental processes) and meta-awareness (recognizing thoughts as mental events instead of equating them to reality) have proven effective for overcoming maladaptive thinking styles. Hence, they are potentially an effective method for overcoming self-limiting beliefs in other domains as well' (Amo & Lieder, 2020).

• 'We develop[ed] a gamified mobile application that guides and trains people to use metacognitive strategies based on Cognitive Restructuring (CR) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques. The application helps users to identify and overcome self-limiting beliefs by working with aversive emotions when they are triggered by fixed mindsets in real-life situations' (Amo & Lieder, 2020).

• Resilience, grit and positive performance are the flip side to limiting beliefs. These positive attributes can be improved through Functional Imagery Training and other targeted strategies (Rhodes, 2020; Yates, 2024).

• FIT interventions work on athletes and military personnel, and are applicable to anyone tackling negative self perceptions (Rhodes, 2020; Yates, 2024).

Further reading:

• How to Overcome Self-Limiting Beliefs | Harvard Business Review (2023)

• The Commandos, mental mutiny and mindset | The British Psychological Society (2021)

• These 5 Limiting Beliefs Are Holding You Back From Making Your Next Big Career Move | 360learning (no date)

Comment below if you have more questions about limiting beliefs that you'd like us to cover. Click the button to book a session to get support with your career development.