Do You Want to Achieve Impossible Things?



The Red Queen



“There’s no use trying,” Alice said.  “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen.  “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day.  Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” 

(From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll).

What “impossible” things do you want to believe?  And what is stopping you from believing them?

Limiting beliefs are so prevalent they come up in just about every coaching session I have with my clients.  As a Life Coach, I help my clients to permanently banish these self-limiting beliefs to enable them to move swiftly forwards to achieving their goals.

We all carry limiting beliefs around with us, with some people having more than others.  This is a fact of life.  They hold us back from doing the things we want to do, and prevent us from taking action to achieve our goals and dreams.  But imagine if we didn’t have these limiting beliefs?  What could we do then?

Ask yourself this question.  What would you do if you truly believed you could do anything you set your mind (and hand) to?

Now it’s important that I point out the difference between a belief and a fact.  Most people get the two confused when they are actually two very different things.

If I said to you “I can’t fly to the moon in a paper aeroplane”, that would not be a limiting belief, that would be a fact.

But if I said to you “I can’t audition for that acting job because I’ll get it wrong and then wet myself in front of the show’s producer”, then that is just a limiting belief.

Having said that, that belief may turn into a fact if I continue to believe it and do nothing at all to banish it!  But the point is, it’s not a fact until it happens, it’s just a limiting belief.

Some other common examples of limiting beliefs vs facts are:

I’ll never be able to fit into those clothes again – belief

I haven’t reached my ideal weight yet – fact

I’ll never be good enough to write that book – belief

I haven’t completed my creative writing course yet – fact

London buses are unreliable - first there are none, then three come at once – belief

(Ok, this one is also a fact sometimes!)

So where do these limiting beliefs come from?  Well we are certainly not born with them.  Limiting beliefs are instilled into us from an early age by external influences such as parents, teachers, friends and siblings.  We are told we are not good enough, will never amount to anything, are too stupid and can never do anything right.  The more we are told these things, the more we believe them until they become “facts” in our own minds, and as we go through life these limiting beliefs hold us back from achieving what we want to achieve because we firmly believe we will never be able to do it.

Now, if we all carry limiting beliefs around with us, how do we banish them forever?  Well, when my coaching clients come to me with a limiting belief, I always ask them these four questions:

Where did this belief come from?

Who gave this belief to you?

What do you think of the person who gave you this belief?

What benefit do you get from holding on to this belief?

During coaching sessions on limiting beliefs with my clients, they usually find that the belief has no power once they have answered those questions.  And once the belief has no power, my clients can imagine what they will go out and do to move forwards towards achieving their goals.

So if you are just like the rest of us and find that your limiting beliefs are holding you back, ask yourself these questions and then write down the answers.  You will be amazed at how little power they hold, and just what “impossible” things you can achieve once you have banished them forever!

For a free consultation to discuss how I can help you banish your limiting beliefs, contact me now.

Pauline Couper

http://www.caterpillar-coaching.co.uk

Are You Struggling with Your New Year's Resolutions?

If you are, then you are not alone.

In 2007, FranklinCovey surveyed 15,031 of their customers about their New Year’s Resolutions.  They found that 35% of people break them before the end of January, with another 42% breaking them at some point after that.

I’m not surprised that 77% of people give up on their resolutions in such a short period of time.  New Year's Resolutions are difficult to keep unless you have tremendous willpower, a life-changing experience, or someone who can help keep you focused, support and motivate you through to achieving your goals.

In my experience I’ve found that people who only set goals once a year just because it’s the "thing to do" are not truly goal-oriented people.  And I admit I used to be one of them.  But now I don’t believe in making New Year’s Resolutions that are, for the most part, just paying lip service to the deep-down desires we all have for making changes in our lives.

Instead I believe in setting realistic goals and making plans all year long, and I work with my clients to do the same.  It does take discipline, but for me it’s the key to real achievement and absolute success.

Setting achievable goals isn't enough on it's own though.  Planning your time to fit your needs is one of the most important ingredients.  If you don’t plan your time, someone else will plan it for you.  And that will carry on every week, every month and every year until you take action to get it back.

We live in a technically advanced world where people are incessently fighting for our attention, with constant distractions such as emails, phone calls, text messages and social media all intruding upon us through the latest mobile gadgets such as smart phones and tablets.  But at the same time, we know that being laser focused on our goals is really the key to getting the most out of our own abilities to achieve them.

So how do we stay focused in a world that can so effortlessly suck time away from us?

Well, as Michael Altshuler once said.  "The bad news is that time flies.  The good news is that you're the pilot".

And I agree with him.  You are your own pilot.  You decide where you want to go, and when.  In my opinion, one of the most effective ways of ensuring that we stick to our plans and accomplish our goals is to dedicate the necessary time to ourselves to keep on setting, evaluating and updating our goals and action plans all through each year.  That's what will get us from where we are now to where we want to be.

So put an action in your diary now to revisit your New Year's Resolutions every week of every month, to re-evaluate and update your plans, and keep moving closer to acheiving your goals.

Pauline Couper
http://www.caterpillar-coaching.co.uk/