Episode 023 – How To Crush Those Hard To Get Rid Of Limiting Beliefs

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Note: This blog post serves as an accompaniment to the corresponding podcast episode of A Changed Mind, where we’ll distill down the core ideas of this week’s theme, along with additional distinctions and insights. If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, you can go here to do so.  Enjoy.

A lot of people I talk to describe their personal growth journey like a rubber band.  They “do the work” to change a limiting belief and it starts feeling like they’re making some progress and creating some momentum toward the results they want, then POOF! – they snap right back to their old patterns of thinking.  It’s almost as though the limiting beliefs they’ve been working so hard to change come back in full force with even more intensity

For example, maybe you make a decision that you’re going to have more abundance and prosperity in your life, but then a bill shows up that you don’t expect.  Or you make a decision that you’re going to attract your soulmate,  then all of a sudden the person you’re dating dumps you out of the blue.   Why does this happen?  Why does it seem like the moment we start stepping into our next level of beliefs and transformation, the proverbial sh*t starts hitting the fan? Let’s dive into the reason.

The Power Of Decision

If you are familiar with our work, you’ll know that we have this amazing tool called the Decision Matrix that, in simplest terms, allows you to take a limiting belief, realize it’s not actually true, identify the opposite of that belief, and find evidence for the fact that the new belief (aka decision) must be true.  What that does is start to reactivate memories and evidence that have been dormant in your brain and see that there have been times in your life when you’ve observed and experienced the reality of the new belief you want to create.

As powerful a framework as this is, it’s not a one-and-done thing.  In order to make the new belief “stick”,  you must make the evidence for it conscious and ongoing in your mind – that’s what creates change in the neural networks of your brain.  But even after doing this repeatedly,  there is a tendency for things to show up in our lives that represent our old limiting beliefs.  It feels like you take three steps forward and two steps back anytime those outdated limiting beliefs rear their ugly heads.

The Law Of The “Echo Effect”

At the foundation of everything I believe and what we teach is the idea that thoughts become things.  But there is often a delay between the time it takes to have a thought or form a new belief and experience tangible results in our physical reality.  There is a delay from a practical standpoint, because you have a thought that turns into an emotion that dictates the actions you take, and that process takes some time.  It takes time for that energy to translate both in your unconscious mind and the minds of other people, allowing for the synchronicities and coincidences in the universe to occur and support you.  It is also the universe’s way of “safety checking” your desires, almost as though it’s asking you “Are you sure about this?”.

Now consider this analogy: if a person is 100 pounds overweight, never works out, and routinely eats like garbage, no one would expect them to drop the weight overnight, in a week, or a month, or even in a year of changing their habits.  It took a lifetime of doing “damage” to themselves to get them to where they are now, so it will take a considerable amount of time to undo it too.  

The same principle applies to materializing the objects of your desires, whatever they may be. Your entire life has been shaped by the beliefs you formed at an early age, which are reflected in the way you think, your emotional experience of life, and your habits.  So even if you make a new decision and install a new belief, whether it’s about money, time, self-worth, relationships you name it, your old limiting beliefs are still catching up and playing themselves out in your near-term future.

You can create a new belief that money is easy to make today, but the beliefs you had about money for the past few months, years, or decades, are still materializing.  This is the Echo Effect taking place.  Think about shouting into a long hallway or tunnel and the time it takes for you to hear your echo reverberating back to you.  Sound has to travel and navigate with the walls and obstacles in its environment before our ears pick up the returning frequency.  So when it comes to our personal growth and transformation, it makes sense that we should expect and understand that there’s going to be a lag, or a “catch up” time, for our new beliefs to materialize.

Staying Loyal To Your New Beliefs 

It’s important to realize that change takes time.  The best thing we can do, especially in those moments where those old limiting beliefs pop back up and throw us off our game is to STAY LOYAL to the new beliefs that we want to shape the experience of our lives.  If you’re trying to make more money and live more abundantly and an unexpected bill pops up, see it as a delayed materialization of your old patterns of thinking that are still metabolizing their way out of your unconscious mind.

The less you engage with those old beliefs and prevent yourself from reverting back to your old mantras and obsessive inner dialogue, the less evidence you’ll find that it’s still “true” for you.  We’ve got to believe in the invisible until it becomes visible and materializes in our lives, which WILL happen if we stay loyal to our new beliefs.  If we pull our attention away from the thoughts, emotions, experiences, and habits we don’t want anymore, they will retreat back into the fabric of consciousness and no longer be a part of us.

Patience – The Secret “Ingredient” Of Transformation

In our quick fix, instant gratification, “gotta have it now” society, it makes sense that we want our lives to change overnight.  But there’s a reason why most lottery winners ultimately go broke – they THINK their lives change overnight alongside their winnings – but the reality is that they’re still the exact same person as before.  Personal growth isn’t a one-and-done process.  Since it takes time, consistency, and practice, it also requires patience (which itself requires practice).

If you think the system is rigged or the Universe is working against you when your new beliefs and the objects of your desires don’t materialize overnight, you can’t be patient.  It’s our job to keep finding evidence for the beliefs we want to live by, even amid adversity, uncertainty, and doubt.  If we can stay loyal to our beliefs, practice patience, and give the changes we want to create the time they need to materialize both in our conscious mind and physical reality, we truly can create anything we want.