What you believe, what you consider to be true about yourself, about others, and about the world around you, influences your actions every day. Your beliefs shape your mindset, and your mindset creates the framework for how you approach the world, both in your personal and your professional life.
For those looking to unleash their full potential and reach their peak performance, especially at work, it’s time to get serious about the limiting beliefs that may be holding you back. The power of the mind in shaping individual outcomes is undeniable, and our mindset plays a pivotal role in determining success in the professional realm. The good news is, you have influence over your beliefs and overall mindset. Change is possible; you can develop your mindset into one that serves you, instead of limiting you.
Limiting beliefs hinder personal development
Falling into the trap of limiting beliefs such as perfectionism, imposter syndrome, negativity bias, and a fixed mindset keep you from trusting yourself fully. They can hold you back from making decisions with confidence, lead you to avoid new projects and tasks and prevent you from reaching your true potential.
Perfectionism
The belief that everything you or others do must be done exactly right, beyond reasonable expectations, is perfectionism. Perfectionism is a strongly limiting belief that narrows your focus to mistakes and shortcomings, not allowing you to see the progress you make, only the failings. Being motivated to improve is a good thing. Being driven to perfectionism will lead to an unhelpful cycle of stress and avoidance to prevent failure, eroding your trust in yourself and holding you back from fulfilling your potential.
Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is the belief that you don’t actually deserve your accomplishments, and don’t belong in your current position at work; it is most common in highly successful, highly accomplished people. The mindset of imposter syndrome can push you into perfectionism, to try to prevent people from discovering you’re a “fraud” (even though you absolutely are not). It can also prevent you from trying, and drive you away from opportunity, as you consider yourself unworthy.
Negativity bias
When your beliefs about negative experiences, thoughts, and outcomes in your life and in the world become your major input source, you can get stuck in negativity bias. This can lead to fear and defensiveness when you receive negative feedback, avoidance of risk—including healthy and normal risks like offering an opinion—and an inability to make firm decisions. The impacts on your productivity and personal development can be profound.
Fixed mindset
In a fixed mindset, you assume your abilities and your performance are static, inherent to how you are, and not changeable. If you’re good at something, you’ll always be good at it, and if you aren’t, that’s just how it is. This can become self-reinforcing; if you believe that you aren’t any good at, say, training others at work, you’ll reinforce that belief by avoiding opportunities to become a better trainer. You may avoid taking on mentees, or avoid classes about improving training skills because you believe it is part of you to not be a decent trainer. In this, challenges are seen as threats rather than opportunities.
Fixed mindsets hold you back from learning and growing. You miss out on all sorts of opportunities, and in the process also experience a great deal of stress about how you’re “supposed” to perform and participate.
Expanding your growth mindset for performance optimization
There is a transformative way to approach your work, a way that allows you to expand your understanding of your own potential, as well as the potential of others. This is called the growth mindset. Embodying a growth mindset supposes that while you may try and fail at something, or not have an inherent ability to start, you can always put work in and improve. Through effort, adaptability, and appreciation of your developing skills, you can improve your performance in pretty much any arena.
A growth mindset does not assume that your effort leads to perfection; the goal is progress. Progress requires you to look at your failings as learning opportunities. This can feel uncomfortable, but when you consider that failing is a key component of learning, it can be easier to appreciate. You can remind yourself regularly that your goal here is to understand what you can do now, and what you need to do next time.
A growth mindset allows you to believe in yourself; you can do hard things, approach tasks with flexibility, and make changes. You can also believe in the ability for growth in others, which adds significantly to your leadership capacity. Belief in yourself and others is a powerful force and can take you far in professional and personal endeavors.
How to shift your beliefs to work for you
With the help of an executive coach, embodying a growth mindset will become a cornerstone feature of your approach to personal development and help you wipe out the insecurities associated with perfectionism, imposter syndrome, negativity bias, and a fixed mindset.
Begin with reflection
Any important shift in your life will require intentional reflection. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Look at your goals and values, and where your beliefs align with them, versus where they hold you back. Consider what beliefs you’d need to hold, to achieve your goals. What beliefs prevent you from truly accomplishing your full potential?
- How do you typically respond to challenging tasks or projects at work?
- Are you willing to put in extra effort to develop new skills and overcome obstacles, or do you tend to shy away from exerting additional energy?
- Are you open to feedback as a means of personal and professional development, or do you find it challenging to accept criticism?
- Are you actively seeking out learning opportunities, or do you feel content with your existing skill set?
- How do you approach collaboration with colleagues or team members?
- How comfortable are you with change and adapting to new circumstances in the workplace?
- Are you able to bounce back quickly, learn from challenges, and move forward, or do setbacks tend to impact your confidence and motivation
Keep track of your progress
Once you understand your motivations, and understand what beliefs you hold that need to change, you can get started on that change. You can begin by writing out the beliefs you want to let go of, and the beliefs you consider more aligned with your personal goals. As you start to shift your mindset toward growth and change, write down your successes. This will help cement them in your mind, and encourage you as you do the work to make change.
Being mindful can help you make change
When approaching belief shifts, mindfulness can help. Mindfulness means attending to the moment, how you think, how you feel, what is happening around you. It takes practice and consistency in order to easily enter, and return to, a mindful approach to the world. Mindfulness can help you two-fold in changing your beliefs to match your personal development goals.
First, mindfulness lets you notice your thoughts in the moment. When they align with your old beliefs that held you back, you can take note, and make a gentle shift for yourself. As time goes on and you do this consistently, you will teach yourself to trust your new beliefs and let go of the old.
Second, mindfulness allows you to notice what is happening around you when you work. You can use the inputs of the reality of the situation more easily when you are mindful of what is going on. This will allow you to more easily let go of old beliefs that held you back, since they don’t align with the current reality of what you’re doing at work.
Consider executive coaching for more support in belief changes and personal optimization
It can be intimidating to attempt to shift your beliefs all on your own. Consider whether help from an executive coach could help you unlock your next level of personal and professional development. Consider getting in touch with an executive coach like those at Holistic Wellness in Alpharetta, GA for a free consultation. An executive coach can help you dig into which of your beliefs hold you back, guiding you as you launch into the practices that will allow a total mindset shift, leveling up your leadership so you can grow, and thrive, in your work.
Gleyce Almeida-Farrell is a psychotherapist and the founder of Holistic Wellness Practice in Alpharetta, GA. She specializes in helping adults manage stress and overcome symptoms of anxiety utilizing a holistic and integrative approach to mental wellness.
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