You Aren’t As Bad As You Fear
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Letting go of outdated beliefs about what you can’t do
Many of you carry all kinds of beliefs that your lives won’t work out to be as good as you would like. You picked up these ideas when you were young and impressionable. Someone maybe told you you’d never make anything of yourself, and you’ve carried the beliefs with you into adulthood. There’s a voice in your head that keeps telling you it’s not worth making an effort, because you’ll never succeed.
Is this true or not? Was it true of you as a child? Is it true now? Has is ever been true; or is it just that you believe it, so you know even if you make an effort, it won’t work? You feel defeated before you even start.
If you continue to accept this kind of mistaken belief as true, it will stop you from doing what you want. You have given the belief power over you because you treat it as correct. But it has no greater likelihood of being correct than any other thoughts. Any belief, whether it’s one of our own, one we’ve accepted from others, or a commonly held belief of our society, may simply not be true.
Holding on to outdated beliefs like this, — focusing on what you can’t do, your weaknesses, or gaps in your knowledge, instead of looking forward to what you might do, — will make you frustrated. Your desires for the future will stay mired in your current state.
How can you let go of thoughts of what you can’t do?
- Keep your emotions in check. Everyone has ups and downs. You can’t control your emotions, but you can control how you react to situations. You can’t expect to be happy all the time. You just need to accept that sometimes you’ll feel good and sometimes you won’t.
- Don’t concentrate on looking for yet more things you can’t do. You will waste a lot of energy which could be used to try something new. Look at your life as a glass half full, rather than half empty. Then you’ve got the opportunity to fill that glass and improve yourself.
- Every time you get fearful, remember that most of the fear is caused by your imagination of what could happen, rather than the truth of what is happening. Focus instead on the positive aspects of your life. That way you’ll stay more cheerful and will be less likely to pile up problems for yourself.
- Don’t listen to others, then worry unnecessarily about what is “normal” or “standard.” Start to clear up problems in your life by reviewing all the assumptions about yourself you’ve picked up over the years. Most are no longer useful to you. They serve only to limit your achievements and cause misery as you try to fit your life around them.
- Question your beliefs mercilessly. If they are still sound, then hang on to them, they will still serve you well. If they prove false then drop them immediately. Keep doing this, and you will not fall behind with a mind filled with outdated ideas and negative thinking.
A good “Spring Clean” of your house cleans out all those dusty corners, and makes everything shiny. That’s what you should be doing for your mind. Keep it shiny bright, with lots of optimism, not dull and fearful, worried about where to turn and who to believe.
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