Excerpt From "Tapping into Ultimate Success"
by Jack Canfield and Pamela Bruner
The following excerpt is taken from the book Tapping into Ultimate Success: How to Overcome Any Obstacle and Skyrocket Your Results by Jack Canfield and Pamela Bruner. It is published by Hay House (Available May 1, 2012) and available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com .
3 - Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
Although some of what stops us from success is fear, much of it is limiting beliefs . . . and any belief that does not serve you can be changed.
Perhaps you’ve had some of these thoughts:
· I can’t because . . .
· I’m too old.
· I’m too young.
· I’m too rich.
· I’m too poor.
· I’m too fat.
· I’m too thin.
· I’m not smart enough.
· I don’t have enough experience.
· I have too much experience.
· I’m not good enough.
· I could never do that.
· I don’t have any talent for that.
· I don’t have the right connections.
Most people assume that their limiting beliefs are fact—that they accurately reflect the state of the universe.
According to Carol Dweck, Ph.D, in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,6 your mind-set greatly determines your success in life. To discover what kind of mind-set you have, read the following sentences and write “agree” or “disagree” next to each to indicate whether you agree or disagree with them:
· You are a certain kind of person and there is not much that can be done to really change that.
· No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.
· You can do things differently, but the important parts of who you are can’t really be changed.
· You can always change basic things about the kind of person you are.
Don’t continue reading until you’ve indicated whether you agree or disagree with these statements.
Now, if you agree with items 1 and 3, you’re someone who has a “fixed mind-set,” and if you agree with items 2 and 4, you have a “growth mind-set.”
People with a fixed mind-set believe that their behavior indicates their basic abilities, and they’re not able to change those to any great extent. They tend to avoid risk and failure, because they see an incidence of failure as being indicative of “who they are” (stupid, incapable, inadequate) rather than “something that happened.”
On the other hand, if you’re a “growth mind-set” person, you believe that your abilities are like muscles—they can be built up with practice. If you have a growth mind-set, you’re more likely to stretch yourself, take risks, accept feedback, and take a long-term view of life.
The good news is that a growth mind-set can actually be developed. In a study done with low-income seventh-grade math students, some students were given two hours of generic study skills training, and others were given two hours of “growth mind-set” training—they were taught that their math skills could improve. The math grades of those who received the “growth mind-set” training for just two hours significantly outperformed the other students.7
Do you have a growth mind-set or a fixed mind-set? If it’s fixed, we encourage you to change that. What follows is an example of a possible tapping sequence to change from a fixed mind-set to a growth mind-set.
Setup statements:
v Even though I believe I was just made this way, I’m open to another possibility.
v Even though I believe that I can’t really change who I am, what if I could?
v Even though I believe that who a person is can’t really be changed, I’m willing to look at a new perspective.
Reminder Phrases:
v I’m just the way that I am.
v I’ve always been this way.
v I don’t know that I’m capable of changing.
v If I fail, it means I’m a failure.
v There’s no other way to look at it.
v It’s too dangerous to risk trying something if I might fail.
v Could I truly fail but not be a failure?
v Could I learn to overcome the things I can’t do now?
v What if I could be smarter or better if I worked harder?
v What if I could change the way I am in a powerful way?
v I’m open to the idea that I am able to change who I am.
v I could create success even if I fail at first.
v Failure is a normal part of success. It’s how I learn.
Use the setup statements and Reminder Phrases while tapping rounds using the Choices tapping technique. Note that you may need to tap on the negative phrases repeatedly before you’re ready to transition into the positive phrases. You could repeat the first six Reminder Phrases many times, until they no longer ring true, then transition into the final seven phrases.
Evaluate, on a scale of 0-10 (0 being completely untrue, and 10 being completely true), how true the growth mind-set statements seem to you.
· No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.
· You can always change basic things about the kind of person you are.
If you answer less than a 10, do the Growth Mind-set tapping exercise above. Start by tapping the Karate Chop point while repeating the setup statement three times. Then do a round of Simple Tapping for each of the Reminder Phrases.
After each series of tapping, pause and reevaluate your level of belief in the above growth mind-set statements. Repeat this exercise until you completely believe, at a level 10, that you have the ability to change.
***
In addition to limiting beliefs about yourself, you may have limiting beliefs about the world, such as:
· It’s too hard to make it in this economy.
· People in my profession just don’t make that much money.
· People of my (race, gender, ethnic background) can’t get ahead.
· People are just mean.
· You can’t trust anyone.
· Men (or women) always hurt you.
· There’s not enough to go around.
· Someone always loses.
These beliefs disempower you, and prevent you from seeing opportunities and possibilities. If a belief doesn’t serve you, it can be changed, and tapping is an excellent tool for this change.
First we need to understand the three different kinds of beliefs: empowering beliefs, limiting beliefs, and neutral beliefs.
It’s not the belief that stops you—it’s the feeling about the belief that impacts you.
When you’re working with any belief change system such as tapping, there are three different types of beliefs you’ll work with:
· Empowering Beliefs—those that strengthen you and support you in moving in the direction of your success.
Example: I am smart, capable, and successful in all I do.
· Limiting Beliefs—those that weaken you, don’t serve you, or stop you from taking action toward your success.
Example: I’m not very smart.
· Neutral Beliefs—those that can be Empowering or Limiting based on the assumptions beneath them, and the emotions they create.
Example: It will rain tomorrow. (How you feel about this belief determines its effect on you—it’s not actually the belief, but the feeling behind it that has power. You may be thinking, It will rain tomorrow, and we need the rain right now. It’s going to be good for the plants and trees. Or you may be thinking, It will rain tomorrow, and be cloudy, and that’s so depressing. I know I’ll get wet on my way to work.)
With tapping, as with any belief-change system, the objective is to create empowering beliefs and positive emotions and vibrations. It’s easy to see that removing limiting beliefs and substituting empowering beliefs will improve the quality of your life and your degree of success. But what about neutral beliefs?
With neutral beliefs, you need to look beneath the belief at the supporting ideas and the emotions around it. So whenever an apparently neutral belief appears during your work, you’ll want to ask yourself:
· What does it mean if this is true?
· How do I feel about this?
· Do I see this as good or bad?
· Why?
Sometimes neutral beliefs don’t serve you. If such a belief isn’t serving you, by limiting your success or creating an emotion you’re uncomfortable with, you’ll want to investigate what’s beneath it.
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