17 Limiting Beliefs That Will Kill Your Business – Which Ones Have You Got?

In my last post called Why Shit Happens Until a Shift Happens, I explored why trying to change my behaviours “from the outside in” didn’t really work. Instead, what worked was changing from the inside out – that is, changing the beliefs I was holding about the area of my life in question.

I ended that article by inviting you to list the beliefs you think might be behind your “issues”. However, going deep within yourself to excavate your limiting beliefs could prove to be rather difficult, because most of them are so deep-seated that we are often unconscious we even have them.

So here I am sharing a list of the top limiting beliefs from my point of view, that plague many business owners. As you work your way through them, try to figure out which ones you might have. Look at each one by one and spend a considerable time determining which ones are especially impacting you.

1. Money Is Bad.

You probably believe this if:

• You’re not comfortable receiving money openly and enthusiastically.
• You judge people negatively who value and love money.
• You don’t like marketing, selling or promoting your business.
• You’re charging really low prices and you are trying to compete by being the cheapest.
• You envy the lifestyle of rich people but you convince yourself that they are {insert harsh assumption here}.

2. Money is scarce. There is not enough money.

You probably believe this if:

• You almost always have very little money.
• You are very ‘calculating’ (i.e., you’re what we call in UK a skiv).
• You don’t like giving money away because you “don’t have enough” to begin with.
• You put so much of your energy worrying all the time about money instead of taking action and dealing with the situation proactively.

3. I shouldn’t charge a lot for choosing to serve others and do God’s work.

A variation of this is,

“It’s impossible to do what I truly love AND earn loads and loads of money.”

You probably believe this if:

• You judge people who get rich from doing noble things. (“$5000 for a one day seminar? He should be ashamed of himself!”)
• You charge next to nothing for your services, and struggle to take care of your own needs.
• You get a 2nd or 3rd job – jobs you hate but because you hate them, it’s OK to get paid more from doing them.

4. People won’t buy from me if I put my prices up.

You probably believe this if:

• Your price list hasn’t changed since your startup date.
• You compare your self with the top dogs in your niche market and conclude that you are joke next to them, so what gives you the right to charge a boat load?
• You try to attract buyers by holding a sale far too often, and you do it coming from a place of desperation.
• You only sell cheap products and you make it your Unique Selling Point (again, competing on price).

5. ”I am not Good Enough” or ”I am not worthy”

This one’s a biggie. I actually believe this is the root thought behind many limiting beliefs. Variations include, “I am a failure”  or “I could fail.”

You probably believe this if:

• You hesitate, you doubt yourself or you play small – A LOT.
• You worry a lot about how people perceive you or might perceive you.
• You’re afraid to make mistakes, worried that you might look foolish, be criticized or ridiculed. Therefore, you are afraid of trying, or taking risks.
• Again, you price way too low.

6. “I Need to Perfect ______ first before _______. “

This is an example of a seemingly noble belief and yet it could be very damaging to your business, because you will probably end up with nothing finished or launched.

For example:

I need to perfect myself first before I can go out there and truly serve the market.

I need to perfect my skills first before I can launch any product.

I need to perfect my website, my logo design, my marketing materials first before I could go out there and promote myself.

Remember, “perfecting” anything could take you years and years! If you wait for everything to be perfect first, you would never get anything done.

7. “I need to see the BIG picture first, before I move forward.”

You probably believe this if:

• You suffer from analysis paralysis.
• You plan, plan, plan… and never get round to the implementation part.

You don’t need to know everything, you just need to know the next step – and do it. Only when you take that step will the next step after that become clearer.

8. “I must destroy my competitors!”

You probably believe this if:

• You despise the success of your “competitors”. In fact, you wish they go out of business!
• You see your competitors as enemies, never as partners you could work with to serve the market better.
• You seek to get new customers by pointing out the weaknesses and shortcomings of your competitors in a malicious way, rather than just demonstrating that you offer so much value, and that buying from you is a practically a no brainer.

9. “It’s ok to put myself at the bottom of my list of priorities”

You probably believe this if:

• You don’t exercise, eat well or get enough rest.
• You say your priority is : Family, Business, then your self, but you never have the time for your family or your self.
• You work hard but don’t play hard.

10. “I need to work really hard”, “Life is hard” or “Life is supposed to be a struggle, and I must FIGHT to survive”.

You probably believe this if:

• Your loved ones and friends describe you as a stressed out workaholic.
• Accomplishing anything with ease and flow feels wrong to you.
• You don’t even have a sense of humor.
• You lack passion in what you do, because you believe work is work and shouldn’t be fun.
• Every situation feels like a war or a struggle or just plain…hard.

11. “I need to get it right.”

You probably believe this if:

• You’re afraid of making mistakes so you end up talking yourself out of taking leaps of faith.
• You often say, “I’m a Perfectionist” with a hint of pride.
• You derive your sense of self from what others think of you, your work or image or your results.

12. “There’s not enough time.”

You probably believe this if:

• You’re always rushing, rushing, rushing… always trying to get somewhere else.
• You work frantically, often multi-tasking but finishing nothing.
• You find it impossible to relax because you think about your work all the time.

13. “I know what my customers want/need.”

This is only a limiting belief if you assume you know what they want/need without actually asking them for feedback and listening to their response.

So do you really know what they want and need? Why don’t you start by asking them today?

14. “I can do everything. I don’t need other people.”

This one’s also the same as believing,

I need to do things myself, otherwise they will never get done right

or,

I need to be in control.

Maybe you are indeed superman or superwoman, and maybe you really can do everything in your business, but the reality is that you only have 24 hours a day. Meanwhile the real tasks that need your attention – the HIGH ROI tasks – arent getting done because you are obsessing about everything.

You have a unique set of strengths, and you can best serve others by focusing on exercising your strengths more. Delegate or outsource the rest.

15. “I am too ________” or “It’s too _______”

You probably believe this if:

• You think “It’s too late” or “It’s too early”.
• You think you’re “too young”, “too old”, “too nice”, “too enthusiastic” or even “too good-looking”!
• You hide your greatness.
• You refuse to live a life authentic to who you really are, for fear of not getting accepted if you reveal your real self.
• You believe you are never ready or it is never the right time to do what you want. Regardless of what the conditions are, you always have an excuse as to why you can’t do it yet.

16. “If I contact my subscriber list to sell to them they will get annoyed with me.”

You probably believe this if:

• You have a list but you only email them once every 3-6 months, or worse, never.
• You don’t constantly communicate with your customers.
• It has never occurred to you that you are depriving people of the chance to have their lives get enriched by your service. You are hiding your light from them simply because you are busy worrying over your petty concerns.

17. “Someday when ___________ happens, I will finally be happy.”

You probably believe this if:

• You think money will make you happy and will solve all your problems.
• You are waiting for something/someone to happen first before you finally take a chance on living your life at the highest level.
• You always find an excuse as to why you can’t be happy now.

Did I Miss Any?

What about your limiting beliefs?

Which ones have you got that I forgot to mention? Post your comments below!

Helpful Tips

Awareness is Always the first step.

After identifying which beliefs you are holding onto, observe how exactly they are affecting your life. Specifically, what results are you producing now for believing those beliefs?

You might be tempted to figure out why you are the way you are based on what happened in the past.  Unless the insight come to you in a sudden flash of awareness, I would advise against it. Figuring out all that shit could last forever and you could just get stuck there (trust me, it’s happened to me many times!).

My suggestion: stay in the present. Be aware of how those thoughts are affecting you in the present. That will be enough to address them and clear those blocks out from your mind.

In a future blog post I will share 2 highly effective tools with you that worked for both myself and Clément. These tools helped us clear a lot of mental blocks that had been holding us back for years. If you have been struggling for years to overcome similar issues, and all hope seems lost, hang in there! If it worked for us, it could work for you too…

Meanwhile please share your experiences with us on the comments below. Particularly I’m interested to know:

• What issues you struggled with and how it affected your business/career/life.
• What you did to address them/where you are now.
• What methods worked for you and your recommended tools.

And please do share this article with other entrepreneurs – they deserve to know!

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