Are self-limiting beliefs holding you back? Here's how to beat them.
What's going on everyone. My name is Matt Mounier. I am a former athlete and owner of the untold 98% I work with transitioning athletes who are at the college or pro level and work with them on getting ready for their life after sports by being able to capitalize and continue to use their athlete mindset long after the ball stops bouncing
During any type of transition. When you're starting something new, it's very common to run into limiting beliefs, things that you're telling yourself that you're incapable of forever. Whatever these thoughts that are implanted into your head, typically they're from some type of experience that you've had that's kind of been with you for a long time.
Some of the limiting beliefs that I see with these athletes that I'm working with is that when they start doing something new is that they believe that they're not good enough anymore. They spent, you know, 15 plus years of their life working on becoming excellent at some type of craft. And as they start to work into, let's call it the real world, they are being told constantly that they don't have the credentials, they don't have the network, they don't have enough experience. And suddenly they start thinking to themselves that maybe they're just not good enough to spend time in this workplace and maybe be able to be successful in the real world.
And maybe the other thing is, is that when they do transition, they're being told that they don't have enough experience. Their bodies are changing. The closest network that they had is getting vanished. Another really common limiting belief is that they're suddenly too young. They don't have everything that they need to be able to have a platform that they used to have. They aren't going to have the influence that they once did. And they believe that because of this, they're not going to be able to ever find something as good as their sport. And so when you start to realize that you're putting up these limiting beliefs,
I always think it's, it's funny to think about the things that you would tell yourself and like no stranger on the street, whatever, tell them to you. Once you realize that you're telling yourself these lies that just aren't true.
One of the most powerful things that I really work with these athletes on is positive self talk. If you guys are watching this and you feel like you have some of these limiting beliefs, one of the things that changed my life and has been changing the lives of hundreds of athletes is spending time in front of the mirror and just talking yourself up. It is crazy emotional. Just talk to yourself like you are your best friend. Be like, dude, you've got this. You're the man. Like whatever it is that you have that day, or things that you know that you need to tackle, you need to talk yourself up.
Because if you don't love yourself, it's hard for other people to show that to you. So everyone has these sort of limiting beliefs. Even, I still have this struggle when with these limiting beliefs and figuring out how to combat them.
And so I want to give you guys just a few tips on how it is that you can kind of identify them and hopefully battle back. And one of the best things that I learned and a lot of people with some depression, different battles like that that they're having is they need to remove whatever emotions or feelings that they're having and make it a third person. And so my limiting beliefs, I call them Bertha. And it's super powerful to remove those feelings and emotions from yourself so that you can then identify them and figure out how to actually combat them rather than having it be an internal struggle. Sort of a mindset trick.
And so once you realize that you're telling yourself you're not good enough, you're too young, you don't have the experience, you can start to respond to whatever it is that you decide to call your limiting beliefs.
You can tell them that, you know what? I am good enough. I have plenty of experiences that I've had. I'm not too young. In fact, my age is not a reflection of my abilities and my creativity and what I bring to the table and so once you can kind of start battling these things, it's going to be a constant reminder of identifying when they actually come up, recognizing them and then flipping the script, creating a powerful statement to re-energize and reassure you that you are capable of achieving these things.
I think it's important when you start responding to these limiting beliefs is that you realize that it's just negative self talk, so whatever it is that you're saying about yourself, it's a, it's just a negative idea that you have surrounding yourself. When you flip it and you turn it into more of like a positive self-talk light, obviously you want these things to be true.
You want to believe these things about you and what I really recommend is that when you start thinking about what it is that you want to say, like think about what your best friend would say about you. I like to tell my athletes like before you were about to play, like what would your best friend pump you up to say that like, dude, we're about to go crush it.
When you start thinking that way, it's going to start to change that negative self talk to have a more positive and allow you to get past those limiting beliefs.
-Matt Mounier