Are you sabotaging your career? Discover the power of your subconscious mind
Driving Rapid Growth for Your Company with Fortune 500 Best Practices | Marketing Director | Leadership Development | Certified Organizational Coach |
January 17, 2025
Have you ever felt stuck in your job, as if something invisible was preventing you from reaching your true potential? Or have you found yourself doubting your work abilities, even when you know you have the necessary talent? This blockage could be the result of subconscious limiting beliefs affecting your performance and growth without you realizing it.
Discover more about these potential self-sabotages and how to overcome them in this article.
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW LIMITS YOU: SUBCONSCIOUS LIMITING BELIEFS
A system of subconscious beliefs is a set of ideas, thoughts, and assumptions that influence, without our awareness, how we see the world and react to it.
Bruce Lipton, cell biologist and author of “The Biology of Belief,” says that the subconscious controls between 95% and 99% of our behavior, primarily influenced by experiences in the first 7 years of life.
When we are not aware that a belief system influences us, invisible barriers arise that prevent us from evolving. This is particularly evident in the workplace.
Let us look at two examples.
Example #1: Subconscious Limiting Belief: “New things are dangerous”
Tom is an engineer who has been working at the same company for 6 years in the same position. Although he would like a job change, he gets anxious about the idea of new projects or when there are changes in the company. He tends to avoid taking risks in his career and stays in his comfort zone, missing opportunities for growth.
Tom is unaware that his current behavior is influenced by a subconscious belief developed in early childhood: “New things are dangerous”.
When Tom was an 8-month-old baby, he began to explore his environment by crawling. One day, he approaches a large glass vase. When he is about to touch it, his mother shouts, “No, Thomas! Danger!” He gets scared, freezes, and starts to cry. His brain registers: “Exploring new things is dangerous”.
This experience is repeated during his childhood in different situations, reinforcing the belief.
Initially, this belief protected baby Tom in the new world he was exploring. The problem arises when he grows up, and already understands how the world works, but the subconscious belief remains the same, affecting his confidence to explore new things.
Example #2: Subconscious Limiting Belief: “I’m not good at public speaking”
Let us take the case of Laura who works in an advertising agency. She is highly creative and has brilliant ideas, but she fails to demonstrate them as she struggles to share her ideas in team meetings or becomes very anxious in presentations with clients.
Laura subconsciously believes that “she is not good at public speaking”. This belief leads her to miss opportunities to stand out and contribute.
At 7 years old, Laura had a terrible experience presenting in public for the first time on a school project. During her presentation, she got nervous, forgot what she had to say, and her classmates laughed at her. Her teacher, instead of encouraging her, gave her a low grade and said: “You need to practice more, you’re not ready to speak in public”. This negative experience leaves a lasting imprint on Laura’s mind, shaping her subconscious belief.
Years later, Laura is a competent professional, but her limiting belief negatively impacts her public performance without her being aware.
LIMITING BELIEFS IN THE WORKPLACE:
As we can see in the cases of John and Laura, beliefs developed during childhood can have a strong impact at work. Let us look at some examples.
COMMON LIMITING BELIEFS IN THE WORKPLACE CAN INCLUDE:
- “I need to have everything under control”: this belief can lead to increased stress and burnout, reduced productivity, stifled creativity, difficulty to delegate and micromanagement among others.
- “If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it perfectly”: looking for perfection can cause projects to take too long to finish, prevent from starting new things, difficulty making decisions, diminish job satisfaction.
- “I’m not good enough”: can lead to avoiding new challenges or applying for promotions, creates a chronic fear of failure increasing stress and anxiety, reduces idea-sharing or collaboration in teamwork, promotes overworking to compensate perceived inadequacies.
- “I’m too old/young” can prevent people from seeking new opportunities or career changes, can decrease confidence in ones abilities, potentially leading to underperformance, can limit workplace interactions, among others.
- “I can’t make money doing what I love”: can limit the search for satisfying job opportunities, can reduce work motivation, decrease creativity, can generate a self- fulfilling prophecy, etc.
- “I’m not creative”: prevents proposing innovative ideas or original solutions at work, creates difficulty to overcome obstacles, stifles career growth, impairs collaboration.
- “I always do poorly in interviews”: Can generate anxiety and inferior performance in selection processes, reducing job opportunities, decreasing confidence and missing networking opportunities.
- “I don’t have enough experience”: can paralyze your career growth, preventing you from pursuing opportunities, starting new projects or ventures, taking calculated risks, and believing in your potential to learn and excel.
- “If I make a mistake, I’ll be judged”: can stifle your creativity, hinder risk-taking, and lead to excessive caution, ultimately limiting your self-exposure at work, your professional growth and innovation in the workplace.
- “Superiors should not be questioned”: this belief can create a toxic work environment of blind obedience, suppress innovation, reduce effective communication, perpetuate errors, generate frustration and demotivation at work.
Do you identify with any of these situations or beliefs? If so, that is already a very important first step!
IDENTIFYING OUR LIMITING BELIEFS IS THE FIRST STEP TO DESTABILIZING THEM
The first step to transforming limiting beliefs to our benefit is to identify them. Here are different exercises to start this process:
- Register your thoughts, emotions, and recurring patterns throughout the workday. Ask yourself: Is there any specific task or situation that drains your energy more? What activities negatively affect your mood? Which activities do you avoid or leave for last?
- Try to connect with what emotions arise in you when you face these tasks or situations. Is it anxiety, fear, stress, demotivation, etc.?
- Listen to how you talk to yourself in these situations, and especially record the negative messages you tell yourself.
- Pay attention when you say phrases with “I can’t…”, “I don’t deserve…”, “I don’t have the right to…”, or “It’s impossible…”. These absolute categorizations are a great indicator of limiting beliefs.
- Ask yourself: “Why do you think you can’t achieve this goal?” or “What’s preventing you from achieving what you desire?”
- Identify thoughts related to hopelessness (believing the goal is not achievable), powerlessness (believing you are not capable) or lack of merit (believing you do not deserve it).
- Observe your automatic reactions to certain situations or people. Repetition patterns are a good indication of unconscious beliefs.
HOW TO TRANSFORM A LIMITING BELIEF:
Once you identify a limiting belief, for example: “New things are dangerous” you can try the following:
- Question it: Is what I always believe true? Look for evidence that contradicts it. In the example: Find a situation where you experienced something new, and it was positive for you. For example: Going to a new vacation spot, trying a new dish, or learning a sport.
- Reframe it: Reformulate negative beliefs into positive affirmations. For example, change “New thing s are dangerous” to “New things open up growth opportunities”.
- Act: Challenge your limiting beliefs by taking small steps outside your comfort zone. In the example: set out to do new activities, learn a new language, go to a new vacation place, etc.
- Celebrate: Recognize and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Reinforcing new positive beliefs is fundamental.
Limiting beliefs, although ingrained, are not immutable. With the right approach and techniques, we can transform them to unleash our potential both personally and professionally. Methods such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Biodecoding, and EMDR have proven to be powerful tools for reprogramming these subconscious beliefs.
Remember that change is a gradual process, and with persistence and patience, we can transform our limiting beliefs into drivers of success and job satisfaction. Some beliefs may be stronger than others so ask for help to work on them.
At Power Inside our, we’ll support you in discovering and reshaping beliefs that may be holding you back, empowering you to reach your true potential.