What Limiting Beliefs Are Holding You Back?

 A New World Record 

By John Paul 

In the year 1954, something strange happened.

And it changed the course of human history.

Here’s what happened:

Before 1954, no human being (on record) had ever run a distance of 1 mile in less than 4 minutes.

Because nobody had ever done it, it was believed that the human body could not run that fast.

But at a racetrack in Oxford on May 6, 1954, one man changed that belief overnight.

His name was Roger Bannister.

He became the first human (on record) to run a distance of one mile in less than 4 minutes.

And since that day, thousands of people around the world have successfully beat this barrier.

In fact, the second person to break the record did it just 46 days after Bannister.

What changed?

The 4-minute mile was never a physical barrier.

It had nothing to do with the natural ability of the human body.

The 4-minute mile was purely a psychological barrier.

It was only a limiting belief in everybody’s mind.

And the moment Bannister broke that barrier in 1954, other people believed they could break it too.

And thousands of people have broken it.

What Limiting Beliefs Are Holding You Back?

Many people are stuck in their life, career, and business because they are imprisoned by their limiting beliefs.

They set their goals too low because they can’t imagine anything higher.

Sometimes, it’s your environment that conditions you to limit yourself.

If nobody in your family or neighborhood has done it before, why do you think you can do it?

Sometimes, it’s your past experiences that condition you to limit yourself.

If you couldn’t achieve it last year and the year before, what makes you think you can achieve it this year?

And sometimes, it’s your sense of self-worth that conditions you.

Maybe there is a voice in your ear that always asks: "Who the hell do you think you are to believe you can achieve such an ambitious goal?"

An inspiring example.

Last year, I had an interesting strategy session with one of our Insider members.

She was keen to grow her business and had tried several different strategies that didn’t seem to be working.

After brainstorming for several minutes, I came to one simple conclusion:

She had to raise her prices.

As far as I could see, she was shortchanging herself with her prices.

Her prices were just too low for the kind of value she was delivering to her clients.

So, I advised her to double her prices immediately.

That’s when the trouble began.

She was too afraid to do it.

She didn’t believe she was worth the new price.

She strongly believed that the new price would drive away most of the customers she had struggled so hard to get.

So I urged her to try the new price with just one client.

It worked. She couldn’t believe it.

In fact, her client actually mentioned that he had been expecting a price review for quite some time.

It was only then that she had the confidence to roll out the price change to all her other clients.

And this January, she’s planning to up her prices again to a new level.

So, what changed?

She really didn’t change the product. It was basically the same.

The only thing that changed was her sense of value and self-worth.

And the moment she believed she was worth more, she could charge more.

Can you imagine how much money she’s been leaving on the table all this time?

All it takes is a challenge

All you need to shatter your limiting beliefs is a single experience that challenges you.

Sometimes, it’s seeing the volume of sales other entrepreneurs in your line of business are doing.

Sometimes, it’s seeing the amount of capital that other entrepreneurs have raised -- an amount you thought you could never raise.

And sometimes, it’s seeing how another entrepreneur recovered from a setback that you thought was impossible.

That’s why you need to challenge yourself.

That’s why you need to expose yourself to what other entrepreneurs like you are doing.

What seems impossible to you may have already been achieved by somebody else.

A target that seems too high to you may be too low for another person who has a business roughly the same size as yours.

When you see what others have done, you will start to expect more from yourself.

When you see what others can do, you start to believe you can do it too.

January 2021 marks the first month in the first year of the next decade of your life.

Stop dreaming small.

Stop short-changing yourself.