THOSE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD
What do you fear that stops you? Fear of failure? Fear of being rejected? Fear of making a mistake and looking foolish? Fear of actual success?
One thing I have realised on My Road To Financial Freedom, is that if you want to achieve any sort of success in your life, in particular having a goal to achieve financial freedom, the biggest battle you will have is the one between your ears and that little voice in your head saying things like: “your not good enough”, “it will never work”, “people will laugh at me” and all sorts of other stuff that makes you doubt yourself, which will cause you to unconsciously self-sabotage by not taking the necessary actions to succeed.
Probably the biggest way it does this for myself is through procrastination and distraction… somehow rechecking email or tidying up my desk can seem more important than taking the actions that will move me closer to my goals!
Overcoming your fears from John Newman on Vimeo.
WHY WON’T THEY JUST SHUT UP!
As I have spoken of before, a lot of these self limiting beliefs we have of ourselves come down to our past programming growing up and all the negative talk we have seen and heard.
As a kid you start out believing that you can do or be anything, but you start hearing things like “don’t touch that”, “be careful”, “don’t be so selfish”, “stop daydreaming”, “who do you think you are?”, ” you can’t have your cake and eat it too” and heaps of other stuff that registers in your subconscious mind and gradually eats into your self confidence and belief in yourself!
Another major thing is that we are creatures of habit and we get stuck in our comfort zone and as soon as we start to push it’s barriers, the old fight or flight response from Neanderthal days kicks in and we slip back to where we feel safe.
LET’S MAKE IT SHUT UP
So how do we bust through our comfort zones and fears and start taking action that will lead us to success?
Here are the first three steps that will start you in the right direction…
- Choose to think differently… Before you can change your actions, you must first make the conscious decision that you want to change your old self limiting beliefs and habits. That is what I did and in the end, the only thing we truly have control over is our thoughts. You see our thoughts lead to our feelings, our feelings lead to our actions and our actions lead to our results! But first we must decide what we want to think!
- Monitor and cancel out your negative thoughts… Negative thoughts and fears will slip in, but you have to be like a guard on duty, ready to catch them and stop them before they take hold. You need to constantly be monitoring your thoughts and as soon as you catch yourself having these doubts and fears say to yourself.. STOP or CANCEL and concentrate on what you want to think and achieve! Remember the old acronym F.E.A.R – False Evidence Appearing Real!!
- Create new beliefs… Decide what you want to believe. Concentrate on new empowering thoughts that will lead you to your goals. Think of your mind like a garden, if you do not constantly put good stuff in then weeds will appear!
AFFIRMATIONS
What has worked well for me personally in changing my negative beliefs is using the power of Affirmations and Declarations!
An Affirmation or Declaration is a statement that states a goal or a way of thinking or behaving that you want for your life, in it’s already completed state. They need to be positive, specific and in the present tense.
Here are a couple you can try…
” I make money easily and effortlessly”
” I am worthy of love, joy and success”
” Everyday in every way, I am becoming more and more successful”
” I am free to choose my thoughts and the direction of my life”
” I have no limits to what I can do, be or have”
IN SUMMARY
These are just a few of the many Affirmations and Declarations which I use that have helped change my way of thinking and to overcome my doubts and fears along My Road To Financial Freedom. In a future post I will go further into how to create these powerful Affirmations.
I recommend you say them every morning and night, preferably out loud looking into your bathroom mirror. Don’t worry, my wife thinks I am crazy, I have Affirmations and goal and mission statements plastered all over my bathroom mirror and in my study, even on my bar fridge!!! But they work!!
Speak what you wish to become!!
So try these Affirmations and choose the direction of your life and not let fear stand in your way!!
Feel free to leave any questions or comments below, I will be happy to help.
Again, I am John Newman and always remember, Dream It.. Believe It Then Achieve It!!
Great article John,
I wanted to add: It’s important we learn to understand our fears and use them as a tool instead of a repellent. Just because we fear something doesn’t mean we should walk away from it.
Overcoming your fears is a topic I discuss a lot. One particular article “Face your fears for what reason?” talks about my perspective of fear and what I do to overcome it.
In quick summery, it’s much about your comfort zone and developing it to overcome your fears. The main question is: Are you driving fear or is fear driving you?
Glad I stopped by!
Great insights Damien!
I love the saying, and I have also read the book – Feel the fear and do it anyway!
Rich and successful people feel fear just as much as anybody else, they just don’t let that stop them.
Glad you stopped by 🙂
Hey John,
I’m a great fan of Positive Affirmations. Having a Mission Statement is an absolute must! It makes life’s difficult decisions so much easier.
They have both worked so well for me in the past
I absolutely agree Peter and I do the same.
With so much negativity in the world it is important to feed our mind with positive thoughts and affirmations certainly do this!
Thank you for your comment!
Hi John,
Great article! I’ve always been full of doubt about my own abilities and I’ve had to start getting to grips with it. I found some very useful advice in your article that I will be applying so thanks for that. Keep up the good work 🙂
Cheers,
Steve.
Thanks Steve!!
Our own self doubt is our biggest obstacle to success, I know it has for myself and is something I am constantly aware of and working on!!
Glad you found the article of help!!
Great post John. Thanks for the reminder of those intrusive thoughts and how to be in control. Great site too!
Marianne
Thanks Marianne, we really need to be constantly on guard and not let those negative thoughts get in!! Thankyou for your feedback!!