Why are your limits set so low? Understanding limiting beliefs – Part I

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

• I don’t…..
• I can’t…..
• I mustn’t……
• I am not…..
• Others will……

I am coming straight this week. This article is going to throw you off in a way that nothing else you have read has. To be honest, I should have done this a long time ago, but I have spent the majority of my life caring what people think about me. This article is for the person who is sick and tired of being sick and tired. This is for that individual who knows that there is more to life than just surviving. It is for YOU! Yeah YOU! Sitting at your computer reading this, maybe at work, and you are wondering why the hell you come in to a job that makes you miserable. It is for that woman who has four children and is divorced and feels that she is at her end; everything is just so hard. It is for the entrepreneur who has been pushing for years, and you still do not think you are were you want to be. I could keep going, but I think you get my point.

You may not want to believe me when I tell you this, but you are, and will remain your own worst enemy. The majority of the time our thoughts are so counterproductive, and we don’t even realize it. We do not want to take the time to realize that the reason why our lives are not the way we want it to be is because of US. Who would want to even bear that responsibility?  I get it, and if you don’t want to take responsibility for your life, then please STOP READING NOW. For those who want more, keep reading as I take you through a journey of self that will allow you to master your best self and surpass all that you ever imagined for yourself.

The first thing that I want you to do is work on questioning your thoughts; I mean really question all the things that you hold true. I want you to really think, could what I have been thinking my whole life be totally wrong? As an Afro-Caribbean woman, I will be the first to tell you that I have many limiting beliefs and I am not afraid to admit them. When I first became aware of them, I was actually a little embarrassed. It was triggered a few weeks ago when I attended an event, and the speaker started his speech by saying something to the sound of, “As young black men and women, you have to understand that life will always be a little tougher for you!” I was caught off guard by this sudden realization that this very saying had been ruling my life for such a long time; I really had lived my life in a constant state of victimhood. I recall my father saying this to my brother and I when we were younger, and I will say, there is some merit to this statement.

When you turn on your local news, click on Twitter, open a textbook, read a magazine, and watch certain YouTube videos, the African experience does seem like a dim one. We are either killing each other in the streets, or displayed as drug dealers, hoes, strippers, slaves, subservient, and I could go on with the common general visuals that are displayed. There has been a slow shift now with the popularity of social media, but the shift is really slow. Have you ever thought that these images, our history, what we have been taught, what we have experienced may very well have imprinted us, and this is why we can say so confidently, “Life is going to be a little harder for me because I was born black.”

Some people may not agree with what I have written so far, but I promise you, I had to really highlight some of our thoughts so that we can begin to examine what we have been told, and what we have been telling ourselves. I just realized that I have to make this a series, so when I come back next week, I am going to highlight some more thoughts that have been forced into our schemas. I promise you this; after this series, you will never be the same.