Do you carry a backpack? I often do – whether I am cycling, walking or hiking, my backpack is always with me. Even in the city, I look around and see people dashing to and from their workplaces with backpacks.

Well, guess what? We all have metaphorical backpacks, too, and they are packed with beliefs. You don’t have a choice as to whether you have a backpack of beliefs. You only have a choice as to whether or not they are helpful or unhelpful, or whether they are flat-out hinderances.

I want to talk to you about limiting beliefs today. Our minds can make them seem so real, but as they say “perception is nine tenths of reality.” These beliefs colour our perceptions and make up our reality, but we can scrutinise them and replace them. Let me walk you through it.

There are two types of beliefs: those that limit and those that free you

I’ve met and worked with a lot of very successful people over the years. I’m talking about elite-level managers, coaches and thought leaders. Guess what: they’re not all members of Mensa! They’re not all the most well-educated. What they are is able to connect with their strengths and step up to offer the best of themselves to the world.

I’ve met a lot of geniuses and incredibly skilled individuals held down by limiting beliefs. I’ve learned through observing them that there are three types of limiting beliefs:

• Limiting beliefs about the world. These beliefs impact the way you see the world and how it affects you.‍
• Limiting beliefs about others. These beliefs relate to the people around you‍
• Limiting beliefs about yourself. These are about your own capabilities and value

Combined, they can literally destroy the probability of your living a passionate life. But don't worry, we're going to solve them one by one. Before we get started, I want you to think about something Henry Ford said: "Whether you think you can or whether you think you cannot, you are right."

Now, challenging these beliefs isn’t easy, but it can be lifechanging – even world-changing!

• Rosa Parks challenged beliefs about the world and sparked major repercussions through the civil rights movement in the 1950’s
• Martin Luther King challenged beliefs about others when he gave his speech, “I have a dream”
• I sparked change in my own life when I stopped believing I could be limited by lack of educational opportunity, or by the fact I was a boy from Syria.

What are your limiting beliefs?

I want you to do an exercise with me. This will help uncover your limiting beliefs.

• Take some time to write down your top three to five beliefs about the world, others, and yourself. That’s three to five each.
• Now look at each of these beliefs. Are your beliefs about the world empowering or limiting? What about your beliefs about yourself and others?
• Pause your reading now and take time to do the following exercise. I want you to understand that you can break free when you replace your limiting beliefs with liberating truth.

Harnessing the Power of Gratitude

Well done! I am proud of you for confronting these things in yourself. Now let's talk about something powerful – gratitude. Research has shown that gratitude can actually make you happier. This is something Harvard medical school has covered, finding that “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity and build strong relationships.”

Doesn’t that sound like a good deal? Now, gratitude might be simple, but it's not always easy. That’s why its good to develop a strong gratitude practice. Some people keep gratitude diaries. Others make focusing on gratitude part of their meditation practice. There are lots of ways to do it. But the key is this: even in our darkest moments of adversity, if we look hard enough, we can find something to have gratitude for.

I’m starting this exercise with gratitude: I’m grateful that you took time to get to this part of the blog series and that you are carving out time to upgrade your mindset.

Now I want you to practice gratitude.

Take time to write down ten things you are grateful for

If you can’t find ten things, then I’m going to guess that you have taken a lot of things for granted in your life. It’s time to change that. Gratitude is a powerful key to bringing abundance into your life!

“What does this have to do with mastering my mindset?”, I hear you ask. Well, if you keep giving presents to someone who isn’t ever happy with or grateful for your generosity, would you keep doing it? If you are not grateful for what the universe offers you, then you will not make the most of it, and the universe will redirect the resources it has been sending your way.

Eckhart Tolle says, “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

And he isn’t wrong!

Once you’ve done your list of ten, its time to say the mantra again: I am the master of my destiny, not a victim of my history, I have courage, humility and discipline.

Well done! Let’s press forward into the next powerful key – focusing on what matters.

Moustafa Hawmi 

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