Overcoming Limiting Beliefs: 6 Tips for a Positive Mindset

Limiting beliefs are the mental barriers we create—often unconsciously—that convince us we’re not capable, smart, or worthy enough to succeed. These beliefs shape how we interpret experiences, make decisions, and ultimately live our lives, creating self-fulfilling prophecies that keep us stuck in place.

The good news is that beliefs aren’t fixed. In this article, you’ll discover practical techniques for overcoming limiting beliefs and aligning them with the life you want to create.

What Are Limiting Beliefs?

Before overcoming limiting beliefs, you need to know what they are. For Tony Robbins, beliefs lead from and to your neuro-associations: Your collective pain and pleasure neuro-associations form your beliefs, which then influence your behavior, while also reinforcing those neuro-associations. Here’s how it works, along with an example to illustrate the circular relationship between neuro-associations and beliefs, according to Awaken the Giant Within: 

1. You have an experience. For example, you take a flight during a busy holiday weekend. 
2. You interpret that experience as painful or pleasurable. For instance, you find the large crowds and hectic atmosphere to be stressful (painful). 
3. Per your interpretation, you form a pain or pleasure association with the experience. For instance, you associate pain with this holiday flight. 
4. Your brain looks for patterns among your painful and pleasurable experiences in order to form generalizations. These generalizations are then used as predictive shortcuts, enabling you to quickly assess whether something is likely to be painful or pleasurable. For example, your brain recalls other unpleasant instances of holiday travel.
5. Your generalizations inform beliefs about situations and events. For example, you form a belief that traveling over the holidays is always stressful. 
6. Next time you have a similar experience, your beliefs color your interpretation of it, creating a feedback loop. For instance, next time you have to travel during the holidays, you expect it to be stressful and unpleasant—and because you’re expecting to be stressed, that’s what you experience. Now you have another painful travel experience (called a reference, which we’ll talk about next) to add to your mental library and support your belief about holiday travel. 
7. Your interpretations of experiences impact your decisions, which collectively shape your life. For example, you may avoid traveling during holidays, which brings other ripple effects. On one hand, it gives you an opportunity to establish a tradition of having quiet, restful holidays. On the other, it could prevent you from attending gatherings with friends and family. 

The Three Categories of Beliefs

There are three categories of beliefs—opinions, beliefs, and convictions. Each category affects your behavior in a different way: 

1. Opinions are the weakest form of belief, because they’re supported by temporary, changeable references. Often these references are based on impressions, like when you form an opinion about someone based on a few limited interactions—as you learn more, that opinion could easily change. 
2. Beliefs stand on stronger certainty, and people often have strong emotions tied to them. As previously noted, the references for beliefs may be experiences, information from others, and vivid imaginings. People are typically unwilling to entertain any information that contradicts their beliefs, but if you have a close relationship with someone, you may be able to get them to hear you out. 
3. Convictions are the strongest beliefs of all because they’re anchored by intense emotions. When you hold a conviction, you get angry if anyone even questions the conviction or the references upon which it stands. 

There are two important distinctions between a conviction and a belief: 

1. Convictions are strong enough that they motivate you to take any action to uphold them. If you’re an extremist with a conviction, that could mean killing nonbelievers. If you’re a determined entrepreneur with a conviction, you’re willing to do anything to make your business successful. On the other hand, beliefs are motivating but they don’t lead to such extreme action. 
2. Convictions are created during and upheld by such intensely emotional experiences that you associate a threat of extreme pain with questioning or letting go of the conviction. Your certainty in that conviction becomes part of your identity, and you fear that if your conviction were to waver, then you wouldn’t be you. This extreme unwillingness to even question your conviction is dangerous, especially if the conviction is harmful to you. By contrast, you hold your beliefs strongly but you could be influenced to change them under the right circumstances.

How to Defeat Limiting Beliefs

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron says many people block themselves with limiting beliefs—for example, they believe they’re not good enough or are too old, or they focus on regrets or future uncertainties. Whenever you find an excuse or reason for not taking action to achieve your artistic destiny, you’re engaging in some form of limiting belief. Let’s look at Cameron’s three pieces of advice on how to overcome limiting beliefs.

(Shortform note: In Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon explains that these types of limiting beliefs often stem from imposter syndrome—the persistent feeling that you’re not talented enough to succeed and that acting otherwise makes you an imposter. Kleon says that one way to overcome this and start creating art is to recreate the work of artists you admire. This will help you learn and understand their techniques so you can apply them to your own work.)

#1: Ground Yourself

First, Cameron advises that you ground yourself—pay attention to the beauty of your surroundings, the present moment, and what you can be grateful for. Grounding yourself will help you avoid giving attention to thoughts about the past or future that may discourage you from taking positive action.

(Shortform note: In Seeking Wisdom, Cameron emphasizes this point as a staple of her six-week program for maximizing creativity. She refers to the concept—paying attention to the present and appreciating life—as offering “prayers of gratitude” to your God concept (the creative force). To do so, she recommends initially paying attention to and being grateful for the beauty of nature and your environment. Then, get more specific and express gratitude for the people in your life by writing them letters of thanks. Finally, express gratitude for any life-changing events and synchronicities you’ve experienced by writing down what happened and how it positively impacted you.)

#2: Disprove Your Belief

Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis says that believing you’re not capable is an excuse because the truth is, everybody struggles at the start of something new and challenging. 

Hollis believes that to become successful in any new venture, it’s not important to be naturally good at whatever you’re doing. Rather, you must have the willingness to be bad at it for a long time. She stresses that expecting instant or rapid improvement is a mistake and will sabotage genuine progress.

Hollis gives a couple of reasons why not being capable “yet” doesn’t matter. First, she points out that this is true with every new skill you attempt. For example, babies aren’t born knowing how to crawl, walk, or talk. Imagine if they quit before starting, or shortly after starting. It’s silly when you think of it that way, isn’t it? 

Second, she says not being capable “yet” has no bearing on what you can accomplish in the future. Continuing with the first example, just because a baby isn’t crawling yet does not mean she will never walk. 

Hollis makes a clear distinction between making mistakes and failing. She stresses that you will make mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable and will help you develop best practices. She contrasts this with the idea of failure, which is avoidable. Hollis defines failure as letting mistakes scare you into not learning and continuing. 

Hollis warns her readers to avoid the trap of unhealthy comparison. She says that if you’re comparing yourself to others, it should be for the purpose of learning and not to gauge your capability for success. 

Hollis asserts that the best way to defeat self-limiting beliefs (opinions) is to remind yourself of factual evidence to the contrary. Put another way, for every negative thought you have about your capabilities, refute it with indisputable facts.

For example, if you’re inclined to tell yourself that you’re not smart enough to get a college degree, remind yourself of a time when something was intellectually difficult but you made it through. Or, if you feel you’re not fit enough to climb that mountain, remind yourself of a time when your body accomplished something amazing.

#3: Use Positive Affirmations

Julia Cameron recommends using positive affirmations to override your limiting beliefs. To do so, notice when a limiting belief crops up, create an opposing positive affirmation, and write it down 10 times in a row. For example, if you want to start a mural but notice your mind telling you “you’ll never finish, you’re not dedicated enough,” form a positive affirmation like “I’m a passionate artist, and I’m dedicated to completing a mural that will inspire others.”

(Shortform note: To make your affirmations even more effective, try speaking them aloud—experts say doing so may be more useful in overcoming limiting beliefs for a few reasons. First, speaking aloud activates the pleasure center of the brain, which makes you more likely to feel calm and positive. Further, reciting affirmations aloud forms “auditory links” within your memory—this instills the affirmation into your subconscious and makes you more likely to remember it when a relevant situation arises. So, if you regularly tell yourself aloud that you’re a dedicated and inspirational artist, this belief will be more likely to arise when you create art.)

#4: Try a Growth Mindset

In Limitless, Jim Kwik says that many people don’t recognize their own genius and intelligence because they’re locked in a fixed mindset: They believe that their mental abilities simply are what they are, and there’s no way to change that. For example, someone who says he’s “not good at math” is in a fixed mindset: He doesn’t think that it’s possible for him to become better at it. 

The truth is that it’s always possible to improve. This is what’s called a growth mindset: the understanding that you can develop your skills and talents. In other words, you can make yourself smarter with hard work and effective learning methods. 

In order to reach your limitless potential, Kwik urges you to find and reject your self-limiting beliefs. There are three steps to this process:

1. Identify a limiting belief. Start looking out for times when you tell yourself that you can’t do something. Look out for phrases like “I can’t,” “I don’t,” and “I’m not.” Don’t limit yourself in any way, even with things that you don’t think are all that important. 

(Shortform note: We may hold limiting beliefs about other people as well as ourselves. For example, someone who grew up with abusive or absent parents might believe that other people aren’t trustworthy, or that authority figures are all malicious. Such beliefs may hold us back just as much as doubts about our own abilities do.) 

2. Find the facts. One of the fundamental aspects of self-limiting beliefs is that, quite often, they’re simply untrue. Oftentimes, what you think are facts about yourself are actually opinions—and those opinions are frequently wrong. Therefore, it’s crucial to ask questions that get to the truth of the matter. 

(Shortform note: One useful question to ask about your beliefs is, “According to whom?” For example, if you believe that you’re not smart enough, ask whose standard of “enough” you’re using—you’ll probably find that it’s just your own impossible-to-meet standard, rather than objective reality.)

3. Form a new belief. Now that you’ve labeled your self-limiting belief and studied the truth behind it, you’re ready for the most important step: replacing it with a new belief that’s both more accurate and more helpful to the limitless person you’re trying to become. 

Kwik offers one more tool you can use to overcome self-limiting beliefs: Separate your inner critic from yourself. Give your inner critic a persona and identity that’s completely separate from you.  

First, find that voice inside of you that says you can’t do something, or that you always screw up when it counts. Now give it a ridiculous name, and imagine it as a person with cartoonishly exaggerated features. Make fun of its negativity, and roll your eyes at the ridiculous things it tells you about yourself. 

In short, turn your inner critic into something that you simply can’t take seriously. By doing so, you’ll dramatically decrease its power over you.

#5: Determine What You Value Most

Tony Robbins claims in Awaken the Giant Within that values are a particularly important subset of beliefs: They’re beliefs about what’s right and wrong, or what’s good and bad. Values are important because while other beliefs determine what you can do, your values determine what you will do. For example, someone who values wealth will work hard at a profitable career, while someone who values friendship will work hard at relationships instead. Someone who values joy will seek it out; someone who values health might forgo momentary joys like junk food and alcohol to stay fit. 

Just as people have numerous beliefs, they have numerous different values. Furthermore, sometimes those values can oppose each other—for instance, someone who values both honesty and self-esteem might experience some confusing feelings if someone else’s honesty damages his self-esteem. 

That’s why Robbins suggests creating a list of values and then ranking them by importance. Doing so serves two purposes: First, it allows you to see what’s important to you and decide what’s most important. Second, if you find yourself caught between conflicting values, you’ll know which one should take precedence. 

Finally, remember that it’s possible to pick and choose values just like any other beliefs, so make sure that your personal values are beneficial and empowering.

Align Your Beliefs, Values, and Actions

Robbins says that you can achieve incredible energy and focus by overcoming self-limiting beliefs and aligning empowering beliefs and values with bold, confident action. He calls this congruence: a state in which you’re able to bring all of your mental and physical abilities to bear on whatever task is at hand. 

The trick to reaching this state is making sure that all of your thoughts, desires, and actions are working toward the same objective. That’s why it’s crucial to take control of your mind—you must make sure that you’re not obstructing yourself with disempowering beliefs or conflicting values. 

For example, someone who talks about what he “wants” to do, or what “might” happen, is getting in his own way; he doesn’t fully believe that he’ll achieve his goals. Therefore, he won’t be able to fully harness his energy and his conviction. 

#6: Change Your Beliefs With References 

At its heart, a belief is a feeling of certainty about an idea, and your certainty is based on the experiences that you’ve interpreted as evidence—or references—to support the idea. Since, through imagination, you can find or create references to support any belief, you can turn any idea into a belief. Furthermore, you have the power to adopt beliefs that empower you. 

Global beliefs are the most influential beliefs, according to Tony Robbins, because they determine how you think about life or yourself as a whole. For example, you may have a global belief that life is a struggle. Altering your global beliefs through reconditioning can transform your life. Think of the impact of shifting from the belief that life is full of challenges to a belief that life is full of opportunities. 

Another type of belief, a limiting belief, forms when your brain oversimplifies your experiences. For example, if you’ve failed at your first few attempts to launch a business, you may develop a limiting belief that you’re not cut out for entrepreneurship, overlooking the fact that most entrepreneurs endure and overcome failure. 

To break your limiting beliefs, rely more heavily on references of imagination rather than experience. For example, as an aspiring entrepreneur, instead of focusing on your past experiences of failure, vividly envision yourself launching and growing a successful business. This will help you believe that you can do it.

While your generalizations about neuro-associations form your beliefs, your sense of certainty in those beliefs strengthens them. Without your certainty, a belief is merely an idea that holds little power over you. Your sense of certainty in a belief is based on the experiences that you’ve interpreted as evidence—or references—to support the belief. For example, if you believe that you can do anything, your references may be your past achievements. 

References hold up your beliefs because they are experiences or imaginings that serve as evidence to support your beliefs. 

The way in which you select, interpret, and organize your references determines whether they’ll empower or disempower you. For example, one cancer survivor can use the painful experiences of undergoing treatment and feeling isolated from healthy family and friends as proof that life is difficult and unfair. Alternatively, another cancer survivor can draw on references of her friends’ and family’s love and support and her eventual remission to support the belief that life is miraculous and full of second chances. 

Discover More About Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

If you want more context to help you defeat limiting beliefs, you can check these Shortform guides below:

• Awaken the Giant Within
• The Artist’s Way
• Steal Like an Artist
• Seeking Wisdom
• Girl, Stop Apologizing
• Limitless