In November I got the privilege to travel to Silicon Valley in California to witness the experience that is Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within event. For those who don’t know who he is, Tony is the #1 life and business coach in the world. That’s a hefty crown to wear. Some may be put off by his approach, he’s a huge dude who swears a lot, has insane in your face high energy, and the events can border on commercialism overload. That said his teachings contain a wealth of knowledge and his rags to riches tale is tough to beat. It’s hard not to get swept up in the Robbins experience. At this particular event they have you walk on burning coals to prove the power of mind over matter. You bet I walked on fire!
I want to share with you one of my greatest breakthroughs from UPW and that was the concept of limiting beliefs. I encourage you to do this exercise for yourself, it is very powerful.
Limiting beliefs are just how they sound. They are beliefs you hold that limit you. Limiting beliefs can impact you in any area; work, home, relationships you name it. I won’t get into how we form our limiting beliefs as there are so many ways we conjure up thoughts that limit us.
We were asked to list the top 3 limiting beliefs we had. Because this concept was life changing for me I’m going to go out on a limb and share with you my top 3 limiting beliefs so that you can see the power of what I’m going to teach you. Here were my top 3 in no real order: #1 I’m not healthy. #2 I’m not as far along as I should be. I should be much more. #3 Business growth equals pain.
I’ll elaborate why I felt these 3. #1 I put everything above taking care of myself physically. I catch colds/flus constantly and hello shingles during last tax season! This is what happens when you burn yourself down, your immune system sucks. #2 I always felt I wasn’t living up to what I should be. Don’t ask me what the should be level really means, even I don’t know. It’s the curse of an overachiever. #3 Business growth equals pain. Yup I said it. When you are a small business owner there is a saturation point when you can’t keep all the balls in the air and the growth starts to freak you out because you can’t keep up. Hence growth equals pain because you can’t satisfy all. I’ll admit #3 was a halfhearted attempt to come up with something so I had 3 limiting beliefs, I didn’t put much stock into it. Boy was I wrong, as you’ll soon see. There you have it. This is what I felt like in November and what brought me to UPW to begin with. These limiting beliefs clearly are not going to do me any favors. Who wants to live thinking this way? Well I didn’t. Enter the magic.
Once we had our 3, we went through a very intense visualizing of what life would be like if we held on to these limiting beliefs. Take it to the extreme, exaggerate your 3 blowing them way out of proportion and just sit in that space of how you’d feel. In that moment when its just too painful to think another moment on it,
Tony said “…flip your limiting belief on its head. Often your most limiting belief when viewed in its opposite is the ANSWER to your pain not the cause of it.”
In that moment I looked down and #3 became much more powerful. What would life be like if business growth was the answer? What if each new client was an opportunity to help positively transform someone? That’s my core mission in life! Each new person was one more person to help become who they want to be, which matches my core mission. What would the growth bring? It’d bring more people to impact, more money to use to provide training, hire more folks, do more for the community. I’d have more help thus giving me more time to spend focusing on my health or spending time with loved ones I’d been missing out on. More time to dream up ways my company can do more, be more, make a stronger impact. More time for everyone to grow through opportunities and new knowledge. How would I feel about #2? I’d feel pretty damn good.
Can you see the perception change that happened? Before I focused on the growth as taking away from me what little I had left to give. Now the growth is the answer to what would bring me fulfillment in all areas of life.
Now I celebrate each new client as a wonderful opportunity to get to know someone new, helping them in anyway we can. They bring a new opportunity for my team to experience the joy that can be had when you are helping another. Growth could be pain. Or it could be the answer. It all depends on what you do with it and how you view it.
I didn’t tell you this to paint the picture that I hated all new clients. I painted this picture because I know I’m not the only one that has felt crushed by their business. You could feel crushed by your family! Anything that causes you to feel it’s taking more then you have to give. That sinking feeling of not being enough, and then a ball drops, maybe another. This is what I’m talking about. It forms damaging limiting beliefs. Our job is to ask deep questions in search of what the limiting belief truly is, then flip it over to its opposite and see what happens.
Thanks to Tony Robbins I am excited again to be the leader of this company I put my soul into. It can beat you up along the way, but when you start to see a pattern of a repeat limiting belief, ask yourself what could happen if you flip it. What would life be like then?
