Are You Chained to Your Limiting Beliefs?

Remember going to the circus and seeing the great big elephants tied to a wooden stake with just a thin rope? The baby elephants on the other hand, had a big chain around their leg which was tied to a long metal stake. The baby elephant was chained this way so that it couldn’t escape.

If the chain is strong enough and the stake driven deep into the ground, the baby elephant can’t get away from its hold. Eventually the day comes when the baby elephant gives up trying to escape and accepts its bondage. It no longer struggles against the chain and stake.

At that point the metal stake and chain is replaced with the wooden stake and thin rope. The elephant has been conditioned to BELIEVE that it can’t get away. Because it believes this, it doesn’t even try.

We too are like that elephant when we allow our limiting beliefs to hold us back. We are chained to the past because we don’t know any better. We are limited not by reality, but by reality as we perceive it to be.

What kind of limiting beliefs hold people back?
I’m too old
I’m too young
I’m can’t afford it
I’m not smart enough
I tried it once and it didn’t work
Etc.

Phil Bilzon is a Personal Performance Coach and gives this exercise for overcoming limiting beliefs.


1. State a belief you have that stops you performing at your best (“I can’t call Expireds,” for instance).

2. Write down the self-talk that goes with this belief (“I am useless at this”).

3. Describe the comfort zone this places you in (“Calling Expireds fills me with fear so I don’t include it in my list of skills”).

4. State the opposite of your limiting belief (“I can call Expireds and feel positive about doing so”).

5. Write down the new and positive self-talk that goes with this belief (“Calling Expireds is something I can do”).

6. Describe the new and expanded comfort zone this places you in (“Calling Expireds fills me with excitement and anticipation”).

7. What is it like having this new belief? (“My business is growing because I’m good at calling Expireds.”)

8. Describe how you are behaving when you have this new belief (“I see myself picking up the phone and confidently dialing the number …”).

9. As someone with this new found belief, take a walk and act as if you are living this new belief; become your new belief.

What kind of life could you and I be living if we threw off the chains of limiting beliefs? What if we simply forgot the things that we can’t do and just did them?

(Thoughts from my reading journal while reading, “Beyond Positive Thinking” by Dr. Robert Anthony)