How to break free from self-imposed limitations and succeed

The stage is set.

The hypnotist’s first subject is a bodybuilder. This body builder routinely does 400 Lbs bench press. After few minutes with the hypnotist the body builder is struggling to pick up a pencil . He is trying as hard as he can, straining every muscle in his body trying to lift a pencil – and – he cannot.

We assume that the hypnotist has magical powers. She does not.

The body builder is still strong. He was not suddenly weakened by the hypnotist. All the hypnotist did was to get the body builder to work against himself. But the body builder does not realize it. All the ‘trying’ and ‘effort’ does not seem to work.

Why can’t the body builder break free and lift the pencil?

It is not that the bodybuilder is not trying. He simply ‘cannot’. He strains and struggles until all his veins are about to pop out. The power, the basic ability was inherent in the body builder all the time even before he met the hypnotist. But he could not use the power because they did not know it was there.

How does this appear in the business world?

• I am trying hard to grow my business and if it is not working, it is likely I am working against myself. I cannot see beyond my self-imposed state and find my power to grow my business…
• I grow my business to a point and then everything stops growing. Again a self-imposed mental block takes over, without me even knowing it. The fact is that I really have the power to grow my business beyond where it is now.
• Without realizing it, I am sabotaging my own business. 90% of what I do is not adding to and not growing my business but I continue regardless.

You are being hypnotized

Every one of us is being hypnotized. It is no exaggeration. An idea uncritically accepted from others, ideas repeated to ourselves are some simple examples of how we get hypnotized. Hypnotic subjects are able to do unusual things only when they are convinced that the hypnotist’s words are true statements.

We allow ourselves to be hypnotized

We kid ourselves believing that we are in control of our thoughts. In this world of information overload and multi-tasking, thoughts simply get absorbed as beliefs. This happens so often it is very dangerous. You may never have been formally hypnotized. But if you have accepted an idea – from yourself, your friends, your teachers, TV programmes, YouTube video’s, blogs, advertisements and further if you are convinced that the idea is true – it has the same power as being hypnotized.

A story of $5000 mental ceiling (SELF-IMPOSED)

John D Murphy, in the book Secrets of Successful selling tells the story of how Elmer Wheeler helped a Salesman to increase his earnings.

“A certain salesman always managed to make almost $5000 per year; regardless of the territory assigned to him or the commission he was paid.

Because this salesman had done well in a rather small territory, he had been given a larger and much better one. But the next year his commission amounted to almost the same amount as that he had made in the smaller one – $5000. The following year the company increased the commission paid to all salesmen, but this salesman still managed to make only $5000. He was then assigned one of the company’s poorest territories – and again made the usual $5000.

Wheeler had a talk with this salesman and found that the trouble was not in the territory but in the salesman own valuation of himself. He thought of himself as a $5000 per year man and as long he held that concept of himself, outside conditions didn’t seem to matter much.

When he was assigned to a poor territory he worked hard to make that $5000. When has was assigned to a good territory he found all sorts of excuses to coast when the $5000 was in sight. Once, when the goal had been reached, he got sick and was unable to work any more that year, although doctors could find nothing wrong with him and he miraculously recovered by the first of the next year”.

How to dehypnotize yourself and unleash your true power

1. Calming and slowing the thoughts: Our minds are racing from one thought to another without stopping. Meditation is a fabulous exercise to gently and firmly slow the mind so that thoughts can be traced and moved about with ease to clearly reveal their source and their conclusions.
2. Relax: Take every opportunity to relax. Exercising relaxes the body and mind, and this also assists one to think and discern better. Remember our beliefs, whether good or bad, true or false were formed without effort and without the exercise of will power. Our habits were formed in the same way. So to form new empowering beliefs we must follow the path of least effort – that is – practice relaxation.
3. Use the power of your imagination: Emile Coue the famous French pharmacist in his “Law of reversed effort” said ‘when the will and the imagination are in conflict, imagination invariably wins the day’. So if you want to achieve a certain goal, rather than jump straight in to action (effort), form a clear mental image of the desired outcome and then start working towards that goal with minimal effort.
4. Be curious: Cultivate the habit of inquisitiveness. Ask a lot of questions. Why? Why not? What happens next? Why should this be true? (Or false?) . In the process of questioning, you get nearer to the truth.
5. Practice mindfulness: Focus only on the task at hand and cut out all the distractions. When I write, to avoid distractions and purely focus on writing, I get away from my laptop, Ipad and Blackberry and use a pencil and a writing pad. This allows me to be mindful of the topic I am writing about. If I have to use my laptop for writing, I close all tabs, web browsers, emails, social networking sites and open up ‘notepad’ – a simple clutter free text editor – and start typing. Multi-tasking is a myth and now proven NOT to work. Practicing mindfulness helps you relax and enables you to access the best resources within you.
6. Focus on empowering beliefs: You are free to choose your beliefs. Why not choose empowering ones? Here is an example of an empowering belief: “I am free to choose my own destiny”. This belief helps you take control of your life, decisions and actions by taking full responsibility.

At the end your success (or failure) is entirely up to you and your beliefs. As a Business Coach I have first hand experience of this. Unless the business owners grow, the business will not grow.

There are no exceptions.

James Caan of Dragens Den in his book ‘Get the life you really want’ says “ I invest in the person leading the business and not the business – It is your mindset, not your ability that shapes how high you will go”.

 

 

 

+ Ravi Peal-Shankar

Tagged as: self-imposed limitations, success