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The real difficulty is in overcoming what you think about yourself 

Maya Angelou

I am often fascinated by the ability of motivation to turn our lives around. Today’s focus on self development is inspired through a brilliant quote from Maya Angelou about overcoming limiting beliefs.

This article takes on three key questions/pointers in the discussion:

1. What is the definition of you? In other words, what do you believe in about yourself?
2. Where is the source of this belief?
3. Can you change the beliefs to serve you?

I believe, a huge aspect of self improvement and growth is in using the motivation to make a push and change our lives. No one on earth is going to come and solve our problems.

If you are indeed waiting for someone to come and solve your problems, then the first step is towards overcoming limiting beliefs about you. And the way to do that is by understanding what they are in the first place.

What is your image of yourself?

Let’s start from the very basics. What do you think about yourself?

• Are you handsome/ ugly/tall/ beautiful/fit/strong …
• What about your psychological self – passionate, strong, fiery, weak, easy to break?

You see, there is no right or wrong answer. It is merely a question of what you think about yourself? These questions can be conscious or sub conscious. But they do have a place in your life. The first step to overcoming limiting beliefs are to know what you truly believe in.

And I honestly don’t care about the world’s definition of who you are etc. I do care about what you tell yourself. Here is a nice piece on finding your self image

Why did you choose these beliefs?

No, I have not mistyped. These beliefs did not magically manifest in your life. They ought to have started somewhere. It doesn’t matter whether these beliefs are empowering or not. It is just a curious question of where these beliefs came from.

If this is your society, parents, loved ones or anyone for that matter – there is a level of influence. And if these influences are causing disempowering beliefs, it is time to cut them short.

I don’t mean that you break off relationships because of this. I mean you need to confront people about this.

Your belief systems are central about your image. If you have a poor one about yourself, then you have very little chance of succeeding against these beliefs.

If you want something badly, you ought to have a good look at yourself. What are your limiting beliefs and how do you overcome limiting beliefs are just the tip of the iceberg. You also need to know what your empowering beliefs are. These are your friends and will help you get there.

If not, let’s choose a different approach – look at where you want to be – let’s call this your vision. What type of a person do you need to be to achieve this vision?

Overcoming limiting beliefs!

Until now, we spoke about the source of beliefs. Now, let’s skip to the most important question – what do you really want in life?

What type of person do you have to become to get there? I don’t care what your current beliefs – all I am talking about now is – who do you have to become to achieve this?

You see, I love this quote from Azim Premji – Success is achieved twice, once in your mind and the other time in the real world . If you are unable to imagine the type of person needed to achieve your goal – perhaps it is time to think about that.

We all have our monsters and our swords! Forgive me, I am getting a bit metaphorical here. But, if we don’t sharpen our tools and focus energies on overcoming limiting beliefs – it is very easy to succumb to weakness.

The strategy – how to achieve success is perhaps tangible. But the internal framework is your precious space. If you don’t create that actively, you will fall into the trap of finding reasons for failure.

The ultimate goal is to get there isn’t it? And if you are not becoming the person worthy of that goal or if the goal is not pushing you enough, then perhaps you are chasing a wrong goal, aren’t you?

The real difficulty is in overcoming what you think about yourself 

Maya Angelou

Page 2 of this article takes a detailed focus on the quote analysis from Maya Angelou, please read on if you are interested.