Limiting beliefs, when entrepreneurs self-sabotage.
I’m sure you’ve told yourself “no, I can’t do this”, “no, I can’t wear this dress or these pants” or “I can’t contact this person”. Since I started my own business a few years ago, I’ve seen how much I complicated my life with limiting beliefs. Today I wanted to talk to you about the 5 limiting beliefs I’ve observed.
What are limiting beliefs?
First of all, let’s define limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are thoughts or ideas that we have come to integrate. They are almost innate. These beliefs end up invading your thoughts and eventually your life without you realizing it. The biggest problem with limiting beliefs is that they prevent you from achieving your goals and dreams. Can you imagine the damage your limiting beliefs can have on your business? It takes courage and resilience to become an entrepreneur, but when you don’t know that your biggest obstacle is yourself, it’s hard to fix. Here are the 5 most common limiting beliefs among entrepreneurs:
1. Others’ opinion and the fear of judgment
I was having discussions a few weeks ago with few aspiring entrepreneurs who were wondering how to get started. The comment that came up the most was: “but what if I fail?”. In reality, we are rarely afraid to fail. In fact, we are often afraid that others will see us fail. We all fear the judgment of others. But no matter what, people will always have something to say no matter how far we have come in our lives. People will always have a judgment to make even when their judgment is not required. It is important to make peace with this idea. We must be able to free ourselves from others’ opinions to innovate, move forward, progress and fulfill our ambitions.
2. Not allowing ourselves to dream big
Another harmful limiting belief is the fact of preventing ourselves from dreaming big. This can be explained by a lack of self-esteem. We may sometimes think, wrongly, that we don’t deserve extraordinary things in our lives. As I said, in business, it’s exactly the same thing. When you start, you have all the will in the world, but sometimes that little voice inside you can be so powerful that it sows doubts, fears, so it is difficult to get over it and get rid of it. These limiting beliefs keep us from moving forward, from following our deepest dreams and ambitions. ⠀⠀
3. Having a bad relationship with money
This one is common! In my opinion, it’s often related to our childhood. Personally, when I started my business, I had to deconstruct the limiting beliefs that came from my financial upbringing and societal biases towards women. It took me a long time, lots of effort, lots of learning and lots of failures before I was able to position myself and deconstruct all these patterns. Historically, we often have a bad relationship with money. As an entrepreneur, it is very important to accept to sell your services at a fair price! You have to become comfortable with the fact of asking for a monetary counterpart in exchange for your services. I can assure you that at the beginning, it’s wasn’t an easy thing. By the way, I help small businesses to find and apply for grants and fundings. Just send me a message to discuss it.
4. Thinking you can’t do what you want
You’ve probably had someone around you making little comments that may have conditioned you. I think that a large part of our limiting beliefs come from remarks made to us when we were children and that we have come to integrate and believe. It is essential to ask ourselves: “what limits me in my projects?” The worst enemy when we are going to set up projects, new companies, or small businesses, is ourselves because these fears are so strong that they can be paralyzing.
5. Being too much of a perfectionist
Finally, being a bit of a perfectionist can also be a flaw at times. It is important to be a perfectionist to do things right. However, sometimes we focus on perfection so much that it can create more blocks. It can prevent us from moving forward with our projects because things are not the way we want them to be. The reality is that if you’re talking about business, sometimes you just have to put an action plan in place, test it step by step, and move forward. For sure there will be mistakes, that’s how you learn. It’s part of the entrepreneurial journey and more broadly of everyone’s life journey. It’s often emotionally demanding, but that’s how you persevere and create resilience. Without the right mindset, we can become our own worst enemy.
Here is what I wanted to share with you regarding limiting beliefs. I hope it helped you to start an introspection. How about you, what are your limiting beliefs? Don’t hesitate to dm me to discuss it!
