Break the beliefs that hold you back

Creative brain

I have read somewhere that if you believe that you can do something, you are right. And it is the same if you believe that you can’t. I think it is a really powerful idea. If you think you can, you are halfway there. Break the beliefs that hold you back. Your brain is looking for a solution. Even when you are doing something else or even sleeping, the brain knows that there is something to be solved and it is looking for a solution.

And then all of a sudden there is an idea. Maybe not a brilliant one at first, but it is the first possibility. The more you are open to possibilities, the more your brain is creating some. It is like a habit. The brain loves puzzles and problems. It loves thinking. So why not give him what he likes?

We limit ourselves

It is weird but people who have a very fixed idea about themselves and their capabilities advance very little. Because they know. They know what they can and what they can’t. And that’s it. If they encounter a problem they never faced before and they decide that they can’t, the brain closes itself. It is not looking for anything. Why, when we told ourselves that we can’t do that?

On the other hand, if we decide that it can be solved, the brain starts looking for ways. It can be crazy creative. It can put together something we faced as 5-year-olds and put it together with what we saw in a movie and add something completely new. Creative thinking at its best.

Enhance your thinking

There was a study that said that it is good to walk while thinking. We are focusing on not tripping over something or bumping into other people and the brain has time to work. But it is not a conscious thinking, like when you have a pen and a sheet of paper. It is all going somewhere that we can’t reach. It is making its magic.

Another way is to sleep on it. Another brilliant way of solving problems. Work on the solution before you go to bed and then see what you wake up with. Our brain never stops and never sleeps. Even when our body is sleeping. Crazy, right? It is a computer that never gets unplugged. And while we sleep and we don’t feed it any input from the outside, it has time to store our memories, and things we learned, ditch the nonsense that is good to nothing, and clean itself from chemical waste.

And as it is happily organizing stuff, it often happens that it comes up with a solution. You go back to the problem the next day and all of a sudden you see something that was not there before. Don’t let it slip and expand the idea. It is usually a good way of advancing.

But if you convince yourself that you can’t do something, nothing of this happens. The brain knows. It knows that it is no good to start looking for a solution because things can’t be done. If we believe that we can’t, we can’t. It is like that. And the more we believe it, the more the brain closes itself.

Who put it all in your head?

The most important question here is: who told us that we can or can’t do something? Where does this idea of our capabilities come from? Most often it is us. But it is weird because we tend to think about ourselves quite highly. While exploring this we should go quite far in our life. Do you remember that teacher who once said in front of the whole class that you are no good with numbers? You were trying and it didn’t go the way s/he wanted. So instead of encouraging you, she shut you down.

What is more, very often this low self-esteem can come from our parents. Don’t do that, you can’t do that. You will only make things worse. Just stay away! Do you remember it? Maybe not, and it is even worse in that case. Your parents want the best for you, they love you. So they must be right. And if they say you can’t do something, that you are not good at something, they must be right. So we take it for granted.

And this is how the chain starts

Somebody tells you something when you are a kid, you don’t know that you can assess what they say and challenge it. But it is not true! Watch me! We don’t do that. They are adults and adults are right. I can’t. And we take this for granted. We start to believe things about ourselves, about our capabilities, and what we can do or reach in life.

But have you ever stopped and thought about these “eternal truths”? What if they are not right? What if they are wrong? What if… it is you who has to do this work. And trust me, you may surprise yourself.

It happened to me

I was told from a very young age that I literally suck with numbers. Ok, my mother worked at the post office and she could multiply three-digit numbers in her head. That is where the problem started. I couldn’t and she was pressing incredibly much to make me be like her. I couldn’t. So I suck with numbers. And the more she pressed, the more I blocked myself. Can you see something familiar? And ooops, many years later I passed three courses in statistics at university. Ahaaaa!!! Am I really really really that bad with numbers???

(Bad) habits die hard

Sometimes we think something out of habit. That simple it is. We take the idea for granted. This is the way the ball bounces. What would happen if you challenged the idea? Is it really like that? What if not? Have you tried? It is a very good idea to re-assess some things you believe. Every time you think that you can’t, ask yourself: what if I can? And try it. I bet my bottom dollar that you will surprise yourself.

If you open yourself to possibilities, you will easily find that many things that you believed for years about yourself and things you do and how the world goes are not like that. You can do much more than you think. The problem is that you never try. And if you never try, you can’t know that you can. Are you still following me? 😀

If we think very little about ourselves, we won’t do or achieve much. It is the sad truth. Nobody asks you to start believing that you can be an astronaut. But well, who knows? What if it is true? Starting with something smaller can be a good idea. I would suggest challenging the concept of: I can’t change.

I-can’t-change concept

It all starts there. If you think you can’t, things will stay like this forever. Status quo. If you admit that change is possible and likely in your case, you already almost won. If you think it is possible, you can do that. And start small. With one thing at a time. You will see how fast things start to accumulate. You start small and then it is like a snowball. You keep adding one small thing at a time and the compound effect is very little in the beginning. But in a month or even a year… wow!

Believing that you can’t is very comfortable. It doesn’t make you do anything. I am like that! You never grow with this mindset. Challenging things we believe about ourselves and about what we are capable of is a very good start to changing things. Your future can be completely different from what they told you and you took it for granted. If you decide and if you believe, you can do anything. Even being an astronaut is an option!

But once you start challenging things and ideas, you can easily see that many of them are wrong. And if they are wrong, you can. You can do things, you can change, you can advance, you can change your life. Change is simple, but not easy. It requires work. If you are willing to put it in, you can do literally anything. So pull up your sleeves and go!