I knew a little girl named Sarah who did terribly poor in math when she was in third grade. Her teacher scolded her for talking in class, and as a result she developed a very negative attitude about school and math.
I remember talking to her about her math scores and she said she just couldn’t do math, but that completely changed when she got to fifth grade.
What happened?
In 5th grade she had a teacher who was very understanding on why she had a mental block to math, and encouraged her telling her she was smart and could do well. As a result math became her best subject.
If you believe you cannot do something, you will give up trying and not succeed.
What negative belief have you accepted about yourself?
It could be about your lack of artistic or musical ability, or difficulties with your relationships. It could also relate to your limitations with your health, money, or achieving spiritual goals.
To help you figure out what some of your negative beliefs are write down 3 things that you believe to be true but you wish weren’t. List anything you think you are limited by.
Once you have your list of 3 limiting beliefs, recognize they are components of your self-image…but they are all really just opinions.
3 Places Negative Thoughts Come From
Beliefs derive from conclusions about issues that affect your life, and most of them have a negative component you may not even realize. Below are some of the main ways negativity takes over your mind.
• Personalization happens when you blame yourself when something bad happens. For example, a parent will blame themselves for their child’s poor behavior, or a child blames him or herself for the problems of the parents.
• Negative Filtering happens when you focus on the negative side of an experience while filtering out the positive characteristics. As an example, if someone gets a pay increase they think they could have gotten a larger raise if they had done a better job. They may think they are somewhat successful never think they are successful enough.
• Fatalistic Thinking is anticipating the worst case scenario. Examples of fatalistic thinking are paranoia and hypochondria. Paranoia refers to a person thinking others are out to hurt them physically or emotionally. An example of hypochondria is someone convinces him or herself they have a disease before they even see a doctor.
Becoming optimistic doesn’t happen overnight, but there are things that you can do to clear negative patterns when they occur.
I have a lot more information to help you understand and take charge of your thinking and your life. I have a new free e-book for you at this link: How to Have Self-Confidence
