Beliefs, Bias and Breakthroughs... Lesson 5 of 10 for 10 Years

One of my favourites quotes from Alice in Wonderland is this one: “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” it’s so full of wonder and possibility and frankly I’m envious of that openness.

The older you get the more entrenched your beliefs are it can be incredibly hard to shake them off. Steven Bartlett’s 4th Law is about beliefs and how you cannot consciously choose to change your beliefs but you can ‘attack’ them with new evidence and work to change them.

What you have to be incredibly mindful of, and what I’ve come up against in the last ten years- are your limiting beliefs.

I was bullied at school, for years, for being ‘ugly’ and ‘boring’ and those harsh words formed beliefs inside myself that, as an adult, I subconsciously seek to disprove through some very unhealthy habits. I try to find evidence to counter these beliefs but I’m very good at using conformation bias to discount any new evidence and support the old… I’m aware of it, I’m working on it.

In business this has shown up in a few ways: my socialphobia kicks in big time when I go networking, rooms full of strangers really make me anxious and I have to work really hard to make myself do it; reels and online content where I’m exposed still give me pause, putting myself out there, open for criticism; pitching and costing can still cause me to undersell myself, doubting that I’m good enough to charge a higher rate.

If you go back ten years I couldn’t do any of these things- I made excuses not to network, I never did video content and I undercharged a lot.

I have had to work on myself to get where I am now. I have had to consciously listen to compliments and use those to fuel my visibility and progress. I have had to learn to critically analyse feedback and not always leap to the worst conclusions. I have had to find ways to record content that puts me out there and not worry about how I look.

I’ll be honest, it’s not easy.

I still have days when I don’t think I’m good enough or I’m scared to stick my head about the parapet. I still get scared doing a rate increase or getting feedback. I’m still anxious when I go networking.

But I’m a work in progress, we all are, and the fact that I’m trying every single day to shift those limiting beliefs is what makes me incredibly proud.

So recognise your limiting beliefs, where do they come from and what impact do they have on your business? Then armed with that knowledge work hard to find or generate the evidence that will help you change or at least manage them.

The difference will be amazing.