Limiting Beliefs:What You Think You Know Might Be Holding You Back
When I was very young, I started ballet and quickly learned I was Not Flexible. I continued to be Not Flexible until college, when I started exercising, running, and doing yoga and I could finally touch my toes. On a good day.
Five or six years ago, I saw a physical therapist for a knee issue, and I informed him my hamstrings were Not Flexible. He did some assessments and said: "Actually, you're above the baseline for the average person."
🤯
For nearly my entire life, I'd been operating under the assumption -- or thelimiting belief -- that I was Not Flexible and now, suddenly, I found my perception had not necessarily been accurate.
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Some of the most significant hurdles people face when it comes to fitness, health, even work or relationships, are their own limiting beliefs.
The definition is right in the name: Limiting beliefs are thoughts or ideas that limit what we achieve.
It's like that quote: "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
I thought I was Not Flexible and Could Not Do a Split nearly my entire life.
A few months ago, new BODYFLOW choreography included the option for a split, which I didn't intend to even try because I was Not Flexible and Could Not Do a Split -- not as a 4-year-old in ballet, or a 6-year-old in gymnastics, or a 20-year-old in yoga.
As a 35-year-old who's been doing mobility work almost daily for several years, though? Turns out I'm at least flexible enough now to almost do a split.
🤯
Many of us have stories in our head that we've believed or accepted for so long that they've become what we think is true...and that might not actually be the case.
Some common limiting beliefs around health and fitness include:
"I'm too old to _____"
"I can't ______ at my age"
"I need to lose ____ lbs before I _____"
"I can't afford to eat healthy/hire a trainer/etc."
"I don't have time to ______"
"I'll never be able to ______"
Those statements often keep people from even trying certain things, but if you don't try, you'll never know for sure. You're limiting yourself and your potential with excuses that might not be based in fact.
Just because you haven't done something before or can't currently do it doesn't mean you never will.
Age and weight, often used as reasons people "can't" do things, are actually less important than factors like activity and overall health.
And things we thought were true about ourselves at one point -- or that we were told were true by other people -- don't need to affect our choices and actions moving forward.
We always have the capacity to change our health, our fitness, and our lives. Maybe not to the full extent we'd like, but there is always an opportunity to grow and change if we believe we can and work to do so.
This week, consider what limiting beliefs you might hold about yourself. (Use the bulleted phrases above for ideas.) It could be something you were told by a family member, a physician, or a childhood bully or something you absorbed from a tv commercial or something you read.
Then challenge it. What if that isn't the case? What could you do if you weren't letting those stories, those limiting beliefs, hold you back?
