Self Limiting Beliefs

Bill Lennan
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read
Your beliefs are your chains

Mark Twain is famously mis-credited with saying: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

While the provenance is doubtful — the sentiment is spot on. People get into more trouble by believing things which aren’t true than they do from ignorance.

Another name for this believing of things which “just ain’t so” — self limiting beliefs.

You may recognize some of these historical limiting beliefs.

“everything on earth is made from four elements”

“the world is flat”

“no-one can run faster than a 4 minute mile”

And my favorite “it will take one million to ten million years to build a heavier than air flying machine” — published in the New York times in 1903 on the same day Orville & Wilbur started building their airplane.

“I can’t do that because..” is not true.

Someone else in your situation has done it. You may not know how — but you can learn.

The Wright brothers were under-funded, un-educated, and had no support — yet they revolutionized the world when the greatest minds of the day could not.

We don’t know what they feared — but we do know they succeeded.

If two bicycle mechanics with no money can change the world, why can’t you?

What’s the thing “you know for sure that just ain’t so”?

UpLevel.Works

Skills training for mental wellness

Bill Lennan

Written by

Co-Founder UpLevel Works. Ardent believer in effort. Parent, partner, persistent, physical.

UpLevel.Works

Skills training for mental wellness

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