Beliefs are your ideas about how the world works and how you are supposed to function in it. Those beliefs arise from impressions the world has made on you[1]. Generally in the period in which you grow up. Those beliefs are about all contexts in your life. You have ideas about how families should work, about how important work is to you, about friendships, about money, food and so on. Emotionally, you also feel that what your belief is correct. Your beliefs determine what feels right or good for you to do.
Those beliefs also affect you a lot. For example, research shows that the beliefs you have about work affect the preferences you have for work, what you do with your resources and the work required of you and whether it affects conflicts between your work life and personal life and even how wealthy you become (source 1).
Personal beliefs
Any beliefs you have are personal. After all, you have a unique life. Even your siblings may have different beliefs because they have led different lives. Sure, you can have some similarities, but your ideas about how the world works are usually not quite the same as ideas other people have. About certain facets of life, contexts, of course, you can think alike.
In addition, your personal beliefs can also be about what you believe about yourself. This in turn affects your motivation and willpower[2]. For example, if you are convinced that you have infinite willpower, this can prevent you from suffering from ego exhaustion. In any case, it ensures that you are less bothered by it when it becomes more difficult to perform a particular task.
Impeding beliefs
But when do you suffer from ego exhaustion? You can suffer from that if you suffer from limiting beliefs. For example, a limiting belief is the idea “I can’t do it.” If you think that about something, you’re not even going to try to get it done. Thus, to achieve success, it is important to at least think “I can do it.”[3]
But limiting beliefs can also be less obvious. You may be very quiet in groups because you were once taught that it’s rude to interrupt people, but that can reduce your chances at work. You don’t even have to be aware of this.
If you find that you want to do something but you don’t do it and you can’t actually pinpoint why you have that feeling that says “no, don’t do it” then you may be suffering from an unconscious limiting belief.
In that case, it is time to examine with yourself why you always block in certain situations and what life experience has caused you not to do something then.
This is something a coach can help you with. Want to know more about how that works then? Please contact me without obligation.
See you soon.
Petra.
[1] https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.2016.0410
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103112000509
[3] http://www.learningpartners.co.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Limiting%20Beliefs.pdf