Achieving Personal and Business Success: What's Holding You Back?

Most people would say they want to achieve personal and business success, but the fact is that many of them are being held back by limiting beliefs and a sense of helplessness.

Since overcoming limiting beliefs is important for personal development, let's illustrate the concept with a story. Have you heard of the traditional method for training circus elephants?

If you had a baby elephant, you could chain its leg to a stake in the ground, and it would be too small to escape. At first, it would pull hard against the chain, but it would gradually give up, accepting that the chain restricted its movement.

Eventually, the elephant would grow into a powerful adult weighing 6 to 8 tons, big enough to easily snap the silly chain, yet it would never try. After growing up with the belief that a chain around its leg meant it couldn't escape, the elephant wouldn't even believe it could break a string tied to a buried stick.

That's a limiting belief. It's something that you believe even though it is not only false, but actually holding you back from further personal development.

In some ways, we are all like old-fashioned circus elephants. We learned many of our limiting beliefs when we were children, too. But we are also strong enough to break our chains.

One fundamental limiting belief that holds many people back is the idea that they are powerless to change the future. These people, who believe they are at the mercy of fate, have what is called an external locus of control.

A person's locus of control influences whether they think they are in charge of the events in their lives. This is a key concept in the field of personal development because it controls how a person interprets virtually everything that happens to them.

For example, a businesswoman with a high internal locus of control would believe she was in control of her destiny and her business success. If she were struggling with money, she would say it was because she hadn't made the best financial decisions so far. If she were doing well financially, she would say it was because of her hard work and efforts.

On the other hand, a businesswoman with a high external locus of control would think that outside forces determined her future. If she were struggling with business success and money, she might blame the economy, her competitors, her industry, the government, her education, her parents, supernatural forces, or luck-in short, anything but herself. And yet, if she became financially successful, she would attribute this to one or more of those same forces, even if they were the same ones she had blamed before.

Neither outlook can be proven to be right or wrong, but studies have shown that having an internal locus of control is linked to higher career satisfaction and better work performance. It makes sense-you're more likely to maintain a positive attitude and work hard if you think you're in charge of your own personal and business success.

So, do you feel you have limiting beliefs that have chained you down? Would you say you have an internal or external locus of control?

In short, what's holding you back?

As a personal development and business success coach, I strongly believe in eliminating limiting beliefs and taking personal responsibility for one's success. If you want to work on ditching the mindset that is holding you back and develop an internal locus of control, I can help you from the comfort of your own home with my Get What You Want coaching. This program will show you the benefits of an empowered attitude and help you take full control of your life.