Probably the biggest reason folks don’t set goals is Self Limiting Beliefs. Oddly enough they are hard to see or acknowledge. What are they well they are something that we all have, it is part of our construct of how we view – see the world. Many self limiting beliefs are below the surface they are old and somethimes harken back to our childhood. Some are benighted other not so good, stuff like no one in our family went to college or the Rich Get Ricer and the Poor Get Poorer. Our parents meant well, at times despencing good advice meant to protect us. They were often told the same things growing up. . How much of a risk taker of risk avoider you are is a good example. These customers & habits run deep. Sometimes it takes years to even notice them, much less change them. Self limiting beliefs are a set of handcuffs we put on our selves.

When my Sales Coach Mike first started talking about Self Limiting Beliefs I found it odd as I was interesting in learning how to sell not looking for a life coach wellness guru. He as tasing about making cold calls and challenged us to call on Company Presedents, CEOs etc. He got push back from many folks in the class, folks saying you can’t do that, its not done, we don’t have the authority., we can’t risk the relationship. Mike said “What Relationship they aint buying from you now what have you got to loose?” He said “No One ever Died from making a Cold Call, the worst they can do is yell at you and hang up”. If you’ve never been hung up on you arn’t much of salesperson. The best that can happen is you make the deal or get reffered down the food chain to make the deal. He continued may CEOs, Presidents don’t get many calls because most sales people are too afraid to call them. This was a wake up call for me. One of my self limiting beliefs was that I couldn’t call on people because I might interrupt – upset them. And as far as calling on senior management well no way.

One way to identify self limiting beliefs is to make a list of things you are reluctant to do that would better your situation in life. Be it a Diet, Exercise, Investing, taking on a new profession. List them out, write out the reasons doing them would improve your life. Build a lift of Whys. To quote my friend Anthony Mayo, “When your why is Strong the how is no problem.” Keep at it until you either have a strong why or discover that overcoming that belief is not that important. Build a strong why then list ways to overcome the belief by taking actions that will start you on the path to accomplishing that thing you are reluctant to try. At the bottom of many self limiting beliefs is often Fear. So write out the worst case scenario. For me calling on a Senior Manager, President CEO of a company we didn’t do business with would at worst mean getting yelled at or hung up on. Not exactly a life & death scenario.

Mike described our sales territory like a black box that has buttons, dials, switches, levers and cranks on it. It is up to use to figure out what sequence we have to activate them to get the money to pop out. How we do that is affected by our self limiting beliefs and that costs us money. If we are afraid to push the Call the CEO button, we are keeping ourselves form calling the CEO no one else. Mike had us list our self limiting beliefs and an estimate of how much that belief is costing us. Ouch that made it real.

My goals have grown from just 3 goals written on a scrap of paper to a bundle of 12-14 pages.  There is a Goal Board with photos representing the Goals that are important to me, in the key areas of my live. Make plans for your family, faith life, business life, health the things that are important to you. Of that I have 3 key goals, with sub goals that support the 3 key goals. I then break down the goals to Monthly mile stones, with tracking. Then many of those are further split out it to weekly tasks which I tally up every Sunday. Once a month sit down and review my progress.  These reviews is how I keep myself accountable to my goals.  Goals without a plan are just a wish.

Tools to overcome self limiting beliefs one of the best affirmations take the list of self limiting beliefs we made earlier then write it down as if you have already achieved it. For example: Self Limiting Belief: I can’t loose weight Affirmation: I weigh 150 lbs Now do that for all of them. Then list the benefits of achieving that goal. By weighing 150 lbs I will be healthier, look better, be able to exercise longer, live longer etc. Do this for your top 3 goals. Then post this list where you have to see it regularly like every morning or evening. Make a copy to put in: your car, put a copy on your screen saver. Some people read it every morning or evening others write them out once a week long hand. The idea is to keep these affirmation top of mind, it takes a while to break our stinking thinking thought patterns. Now go and do it… Now.