Finding the right job requires confidence, persistence, and  patience. However, the best of us can be handicapped by the things we tell ourselves, all those undermining lies that find fertile soil in the heart. You may have heard other people saying things that you subconsciously picked up and repeated to yourself. Things like:

•  I don’t have enough knowledge.
• “Not with my genes”, no one in my family has been any good at…
•  I am just useless at…
•  I have the wrong social background.
•  I have no experience of…
•  No one will take me seriously.
•  I am not the right age or gender etc.

But did you know, when we were very small, from birth up to the age of two years, we believed that anything was possible. We were born with only two fears: the fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. Onwards from two, we slowly begin to adopt and acquire other beliefs which we get from our parents, peers, teachers and what we see and hear. We believed things when we were children that will now seem silly, like Father Christmas and the tooth fairy.

On the other hand, there are things that we believe now that we never even thought about before. Between the ages of one and eighteen, we are told “No” on average five times daily and positive things once a month!

These negative thoughts and fears have only one message–‘I Am Not Enough’. The product of ‘I am Not Enough’ is Worry and Fear. Worry and Fear is the number one cause of all failure in any area of your life. The good news is that you can confront the lie head-on. Like all bullies, it will run away if you refuse to surrender. It is just a thought, not a reality.

It is very important to realize that a particular thought is optional. You can decide to think something else. There are many techniques for helping people to overcome habitual thoughts, but they boil down to rationalizing the facts and altering the mindset.

Rationalising

Confront the limiting self-beliefs by examining and then challenging them.

Are you really not enough, or is this your own invention? What solid evidence do you have for believing it? How do you know you could never acquire that skill, for example? Imagine you were on trial, would it be proved beyond all reasonable doubt before a jury?

Shift your mindset from: “What evidence do I have that I can do this?” to “What evidence do I have that I cannot do this?”

A useful exercise to do is to write down your top four limiting self-beliefs that may be holding you back. Ask yourself if it’s really true and what is the impact of that belief. Then consider what you can do to change that belief into something positive.