Are Your Beliefs Keeping You from Achieving Your Dreams?

Blocking beliefs are beliefs that keep you from achieving your goals.

They can be obvious like "I'm not good enough". Or more subtle like "Life should be easy".

Beliefs are very powerful. They can help you. And they can hinder you. They can help you reach your highest goals. Or they can lead you to depression and helplessness. But most often they just leave you treading water because many of them are contradictory.

Here are a few contradictory sayings, I'm sure you can think of many more.

'Look before you leap.' vs. 'He who hesitates is lost.'

'A penny saved, is a penny earned.' vs. 'You must spend money to make money.'

'Too many cooks spoil the stew.' vs. 'Many hands make light work.'

These are just examples of how we can hold contradicting beliefs that keep us from any real improvement in our lives. We must find all these different beliefs and strengthen the ones that help us and eliminate the ones that hinder us. Blocking beliefs are those that hinder us.

If you believe that rich people are nasty, cruel or selfish. And if being nasty, cruel or selfish goes against your own morals, then how can you expect to accumulate wealth? You will be fighting yourself daily. You can dispute this blocking belief by finding examples of people that are well off and very generous. Warren Buffet comes to mind. He became the richest man in the world, but never lost his humility and belief in helping others.

Beliefs can even go completely against reality. An Anorexic thinks she is fat even if she is 20% UNDER weight. Changing a belief that strong requires professional help.

Most people are not aware of their beliefs in respect to their everyday lives. They may be able to state their religious beliefs quite well. But be completely unaware of beliefs that shape their reactions to things.

Someone who believes "Life is a struggle" sees things differently than someone who believes "Life is an adventure". And they react differently. Which one is more likely to be open to opportunities? Which one is more likely to reach their dreams?

How do you know what beliefs are blocking you from achieving your dreams?

Emotions are the key to discovering our real beliefs. Recognize an inhibiting emotion and discover the underlying beliefs that create them.

Some people talk about positive and negative emotions. But emotions themselves are nether positive nor negative. It is only in what they cause you to do that makes them positive or negative. Anger is negative if it causes you to hurt another, but positive if it motivates you to action toward your goal.

Fear is good if it keeps you from doing something foolish or dangerous without proper preparation. Fear is bad if it keeps you from doing anything.

What do your emotions cause you to do?

How do you react to people who are financially much better off than you? Are you wary, concerned that they will take advantage of you? Are you insecure, afraid you will do something wrong? Are you interested in how they got their money? Are you interested in them as individuals? Do you resent them for taking more than 'their fair share'? What different beliefs might illicit these different emotions? Which emotions and beliefs are strongest for you?

This type of exercise can help you determine what your beliefs toward wealth are and if you have a blocking belief that is keeping you from increasing your income.

If you feel insecure, you must build up your self confidence until you feel worthy to receive wealth. Start by disputing your unworthiness. Everyone is worthy of having their wants and desires fulfilled. No matter your background, your ancestry, your upbringing, your intelligence or your previous mistakes, you deserve to have your desires come true.

Having suffered greatly, or not, has no affect on your worthiness. Having done great things, or not, does not change your suitability. No one is more suitable than anyone else. No one is more deserving than you.

After you Believe you are worthy to receive wealth, you must believe you are Capable of achieving wealth. That may be another blocking belief to overcome. Maybe you believe you are not smart enough or don't know the right people. How smart is smart enough? How can you get to meet the 'right people'?

If you resent those wealthy people for having more than 'their fair share', then you believe that there is a limit to how much wealth is available. This is a blocking belief because it means if you get a lot of money, you must have taken it away from someone else. That goes against most peoples upbringing about not being selfish and sharing. Can you see how this will limit you? Unconsciously stopping you from accumulating wealth?

If you feel afraid that the wealthy will take unfair advantage of you, maybe you believe that rich people are tricky, unfair and dishonest. Those being traits you don't want, you are resistant to becoming rich.

Of course, it's possible that you believe that rich people are tricky, unfair and dishonest, and look forward to a meeting with them. You believe your are even trickier than they are and will get the best of the encounter. In this case your beliefs would be helping beliefs because they are helping you to get what you want.

You know if an emotion is helping or hindering by what it makes you want to do. Then you find what belief is behind that emotion. If it is a hindering emotion, dispute that belief until you no longer believe it and it has no power over you. If it is a helping emotion, build up that belief, make it stronger.

Read more about blocking beliefs at Finding Your Blocking Belief on www.thoughtful-self-improvement.com.