Limiting Beliefs: Ditch the 4 Dream Killers Holding You Back

How to help, not hinder, yourself in achieving your goals

You’re probably not going to fulfill all your goals this year. And if you don’t, it likely won’t be because you’re incapable; it will be because you got in your own way.

A slew of limiting beliefs will distract you from your goals and New Year’s resolutions. Below are four ways you’re likely to shoot yourself in the foot with self-limiting beliefs, plus how to get rid of them.

1. Ego Depletion

After a long day at work, do you tell yourself that you feel exhausted and can’t possibly go to the gym or social event like you planned?

Then you’re subscribing to a limiting belief with little scientific basis.

You’re not alone in that. It wasn’t long ago that I routinely lounged on the couch eating ice cream and watching Netflix for hours after work because I was “spent.”

One of the most pervasive bits of folk psychology is the belief that self-control is limited — that we only have so much willpower available to us and are liable to run out if we overexert ourselves.

Psychologists have a name for this myth: ego depletion, the idea that we have a limited amount of willpower each day.