limiting beliefs

limiting beliefs are beliefs that something we wish to accomplish is not possible for some reason, and therefore they prevent us from taking action or responsibility towards that goal. The elephants believing they were stuck to the ropes was their limiting belief. An example is someone believing he can’t get a job in finance without an Ivy League degree, so he doesn’t even bother applying. Another is the belief that women are only attracted to men of their own race, so a guy doesn’t put in the effort required to find a girl who does like him. But sometimes limiting beliefs don’t even need to have a reason for them. For instance, someone may believe that he’s simply not talented enough to become a professional musician. Why? Just because. Or someone may believe that he’s unattractive and no woman would ever date him. Why? Just because. Limiting beliefs are born from rationalizations of previous painful experiences. They’re an adaptive measure by our mind — earlier experiences cause us pain, so we construct beliefs in which to avoid those experiences in the future. Limiting beliefs are also designed to remove responsibility from ourselves. That way we’ll never hurt ourselves again by thinking we can change our situation. It’s not that the elephants believe they’re too weak, it’s that the rope is too strong and therefore they believe there’s nothing they can do about it. We all get hurt when we’re younger. We all experience some degree of trauma. And to explain away the pain, we construct rationalizations to protect ourselves. If these rationalizations are reinforced enough, they become permanent beliefs.