Dentist, understand your limiting beliefs and learn to eliminate them

Limiting belief is something you believe in and that limits you in some way both in your personal and professional life. This article is designed to help you, the dentist, identify them, understand them and try to improve them. Here are some examples:
• I'm not good at math so I can't go to engineering school.
• I will never lose weight because I have no discipline to maintain my diet and exercise.
• I have to marry someone from the same religion as my family would not accept someone from another.
• I am not an electronics technician good enough to make money from it.
• I can get along if I change jobs.
• I cannot be a lawyer because my family wants me to be a doctor.
• Women are only interested in men with a lot of money.
• I must work here as I would not be able to get a job anywhere else.
• I am not as good as they are at entering this dispute.
• I must stay in the wedding to keep up appearances.
• I cannot travel by plane as it is very dangerous.

Specifically in the dental sector, the limiting belief develops from some classic examples, such as:
• I don't have the necessary qualifications.
• It's too late.
• I do not know where to start.
• I already have too many responsibilities.
• Never worked before.
• I don't have enough knowledge.

Do you believe in your potential? Do you trust your talent and the results of your work? These are questions that you need to answer to begin to understand a little more about your beliefs. How do I do this? Understand and seek to understand limiting beliefs and learn to eliminate them.

More broadly, we can identify these beliefs as those negative thoughts that we have when we are about to make a decision or take action. Here are some examples:
"I won't be able to do that."

"They won't believe me."

"Everything I do goes wrong".

These statements over time end up undermining your confidence and leaving you more and more discouraged. Depending on how long you've been thinking about it, you may even lose the desire to get out of bed.

Thinking about this topic, we were able to find some topics for you to keep an eye on so you can identify your limiting beliefs and eliminate them as quickly as you can. Let's learn together:

 Understand limiting beliefs and identify each one

1 - Awareness of beliefs

To understand what your beliefs are, you can ask yourself some questions. Here are some of them:
- Have you achieved your dreams and goals?
- What has prevented you from acting towards your goals?
- Do you think you are worthy of achieving your goals and dreams?
- Do you charge yourself enough? Do other people charge you too?
- Do you always keep in mind that the things you want are very difficult to achieve?
- What do you perceive as your limits?

Did you answer those questions? If most of them were negative, you will need to identify what leads you to trust so little. If the answers were more positive, then you are already starting to walk the right path to achieve your success.

After answering the questions above, you need to understand how each of these beliefs was implanted in your head. Was it your parents or your co-workers? Was it really you? The cause of this belief may be the answer to find a possible solution to it.

2 - Identifying each type of limiting belief

These beliefs have different levels and modalities. Some are more internalized in their unconscious and some are more on the surface. In order to understand limiting beliefs and to resolve them, you will need to accept that you still don't believe in your potential at all.

These thoughts rarely arise in people who are confident of the path they follow. That said, we must explain that this confidence does not come overnight and must be worked on constantly.

Limiting beliefs are a kind of excuse for not doing what you would really like to do. They keep us in our comfort and safety zone. This can greatly limit your personal development and achievement of your goals.

An important thing to realize is that often these limiting beliefs are things in our head that do not really match reality. They exist only because you are telling yourself that that is a reality. By changing your thinking, you can change too.

Now try to remember the last time you wanted something and you didn't get it. It was quite possibly a limiting belief that stopped you. If you think about it, you will find that many of life's difficulties and frustrations are derived from our limiting beliefs. So if you want to achieve your goals, get rid of limiting beliefs that don't make sense. Freeing ourselves from them, we make room to move forward on the path of life.

Also note whether you use permanent affirmations. Saying something like "I'm not good enough" leaves no room for improvement. You are telling yourself that it is not now and it will not be in the future, that is, you are giving up right there. Instead of saying something like “I'm not there yet but I'm learning” it will take you much further.

So the next time you have an opportunity, even if you’ve never done it before, go ahead and try it, this is just the beginning, what can go wrong sometimes will help you in the future as it will be developing courage and learning, so believe in you .

As Thomas Edison would say, “I didn't fail. I just tried 10,000 ways that don't work.”

How to overcome limiting beliefs?

1) Identify one of your limiting beliefs

Think about what you would like to do and why you are not doing it. What is preventing it? Take note of your limiting belief.

2) Believe is just a belief

Recognize that your belief may be a belief that is not true.

3) Challenge your own belief.

Question your belief by raising questions like:
• Is this belief really grounded? What are the supporting facts?
• Did I always think that way? If not, what has changed?
• Is there evidence against my belief?
• Do other people agree with this belief?
• What would it be like to think of exactly the opposite of that belief?
• Is this belief helping me to progress towards my goals?
• How would I think about this belief if I were someone else (Einstein, Steve Jobs, an entrepreneur, a dentist, a doctor etc ...)?

Many of these questions may seem strange, but they help you to broaden your perspective on the subject. They exercise “outside the box” thinking. Arguing against your own initial thinking can often lead you to realize that the facts and events are not quite as you imagined, which leads you to change the paradigm, that is, you start to think in a more positive and encouraging way

4) Realize the consequences

What are the consequences of holding on to your limiting belief? Holding on to the belief that you are not capable of something because you failed your first attempt can deprive you of your future capabilities and, consequently, of achieving a better life.

5) Adopt a new belief

Choose to believe in something new, something that will help improve your life. It may be a small thing, depending on how long you thought and lived what led you to believe what you believe now; it may have created a very strong emotional bond and rooted the belief very strongly.

If you want to go ahead and change, you will need to have the strength and courage to make that change in thinking and adopt the new belief.

6) Practice will take you to the next level

Take action and start doing things that support your new belief. Let's say you had a limiting belief that said "I'm too old to start exercising". After going through the previous steps you decided to adopt a new belief "It is never too late to start". So today you should start and with small steps, because it will be a big jump, for someone who is not adept at exercising to walk at least 15 minutes.

You need to understand that these beliefs are leading you to live well below your potential, but just take the first step and they can be changed.

Reconfiguring your thoughts will result in extraordinary achievements in your life.

Source: Universo Estudantes Odonto. Available at: http://universoestudantesodonto.blogspot.com/2018/11/entender-as-crencas-limitantes-e.html. Access on: 12/08/2020.