Most people live their entire lives without ever realizing their full potential.
Have you ever wondered why that is? Like, what is it that prevents people from living out their dreams? What is it that prevents people from dreaming big, setting goals, and working to accomplish them?
To be honest – there are several factors we can attribute this to. And let’s be real, there are also socioeconomic factors that are major contributors. We can’t forget that things like race, gender, poverty, and other inequities exist that can limit one’s access and ability to reach their full potential. In my opinion, those factors are major and absolutely have to be addressed. (And likely a topic of conversation that I will indeed revisit and come back to.)
For today, I’d like to focus on two factors that I have been delving into recently: Fear and limiting self beliefs.
Fear is a mother—… you know the rest of that word. Honestly, it is. It’s often the first barrier between a person and accomplishing their goals and dreams. Fear shows up in many ways. Sometimes it feeds or create anxiety, it causes resistance, or it even causes avoidance and inaction. And sometimes we think of fear as something that shows up when we only believe were in imminent danger – but it also exists when we’re afraid of what others may think of us, when we’re afraid of failure, or anything else that we don’t want. To be honest – our brains are wired to keep us safe. So fear isn’t an unrealistic emotion to have. It’s just that we have to be intentional to identify when it shows up, and move forward anyway. This takes a lot of mind work if you’re new to this, and there is often support and online resources that can help you navigate this.
Limiting self beliefs can often exist on their own, or they show up as a result of fear. These beliefs can be as simple as “I’m not good enough” or “I could never accomplish that.” Or, my personal favorite, “I’m not creative.” There’s studies everywhere on how limiting self beliefs impact our actions and perception of self. But the biggest thing that caught my attention is the neuroscience behind it. Did you know that whatever we tell our brains, it believes? No seriously, think about it. The moment we tell ourselves we’re not creative, our brains search for confirmation of that thought and then it brings up moments when we indeed were not creative to confirm this belief. This then gets stored in our memory and becomes our perception of self.
The good news is – we can change this! Thanks to neuroscience, we know that we can rewire our brain and create new neural pathways. I don’t mean to bore you all with science, but hopefully you find it intriguing. But if you don’t I recommend watching Inside Out 2 which does an AMAZING job at illustrating this (Hmm maybe I should do a post on that too? It was also just a great movie to watch with my daughter!) and then read The Power of Neuroplasticity by Dr. Shad Helmstetter. 3 Words — Thank. Me. Later.
Anyway, my intention behind writing this today is to bring awareness to the fact that we are far more powerful than we believe. However, it takes intentional work to reach our unlimited potential. When we look at athletes, or even well accomplished people, we should always remind ourselves that we too can accomplish great things – no matter what that looks like for us. We just first have to acknowledge the barriers that exist, and think about intentional ways to help knock those down. Whether they are external factors or internal – it’s up to us to identify and take action on.
I know it’s easier said than done. Which is why I am wishing you the best on your journey to unlocking your full potential. I know you were created for great things – and it will take time to bring those things to fruition but it’s worth it. And don’t forget, it’s not about the end goal its about who you become on the journey.
For Women With Dreams 