Dear Valorie,
I have more than 15 years of experience and an MBA, but a year and a half ago, I was laid off due to downsizing. I decided to pursue an entrepreneurial dream, but it has been a struggle. I never have enough money so I spend all of my energy trying to keep my head above water. I am beginning to think that my problem is linked my belief system. Deep down, I don't believe in my ability to be successful. How does a person start believing something different about themselves?
AP Video
Hello!
First of all, congratulations on your successes! Having 15 years of experience, an MBA and starting a business are successes worth acknowledging. You have made a keen observation about yourself. It can be frustrating to try to succeed only to realize that you are sabotaging your success with your beliefs about yourself. In addition to negative beliefs, five behaviors that often sabotage success are:
1. Having no plan
2. Not being specific about what you want
3. Burning bridges
4. Lack of focus and discipline
5. Lack of action
Since you are spending most of your energy trying to survive, you have less time to plan, focus and take action on the crucial aspects of your business to make it the success it could be. An important step to changing what you believe is becoming aware of the beliefs that paralyze your progress. For example, if you believe that you cannot be successful, that belief will manifest itself in many ways. You might procrastinate on projects, allow your fear of failure to keep you stuck in a rut, or unconsciously communicate your negative beliefs to clients and prospective clients. As a result, you reinforce your negative beliefs by creating circumstances that support them. Today, take out a piece of paper and write down a list of reasons you don’t believe you can be successful. It is likely that many of the reasons are based on experiences from the past, which do not necessarily reflect what is true now. Next, make a list of positive beliefs to replace the negative ones. Then, even if it doesn’t feel comfortable, do the things that will lead to success. Take new actions that support your positive beliefs. To have the level of success you have never had, you must be willing to do the things you have never done.
