We run as fast as we can at the school sports and still come last in the race. From this experience we determine that we are ‘bad at sports’.
We attempt to draw our favorite cartoon character and our friends laugh at the result. From this experience we decide that we ‘can’t draw’.
We try playing the piano and get yelled at by our piano teacher. This experience leads us to believe that we ‘are not musical’.
With each negative experience, we create a personal limitation that we file away in our minds and carry with us into adulthood.
As adults we often have a wide range of preconceptions and limiting beliefs that prevent us from fully experiencing the world around us. The problem with these beliefs is that we have carried them for so long that we don’t even think of challenging them.
It’s a lot like the story of the baby elephant that has a rope tied around his leg. Initially the little elephant tugs at the rope to try and break free, but eventually he gives up and accepts that he cannot move beyond the range of the rope.
Years later, when the elephant has grown into a two tonne adult that could easily break the rope, he doesn’t even try because he still holds the belief that he cannot break free.
Like the elephant, we often accept the limiting beliefs that we developed as children without question. We carry these beliefs with us for so long that we forget to challenge them in light of the new capabilities we have as adults.
For example, when Adam was young he didn’t learn how to swim. For many years he simply accepted this limitation as part of who he was. The ‘I can’t swim’ belief became ingrained in Adam’s mind to the point where he no longer questioned it.
It wasn’t until he was 25 that Adam recognized his internal belief for what it really was – a childhood limitation that was needlessly preventing him from enjoying life as an adult.
Adam began swimming lessons at his local pool and within three months he could swim competently. By the end of the year with some additional coaching, he was swimming over a kilometre a day.
Learning to swim also opened up a whole new world to Adam. For the first time in his life, he went to the beach with friends and enjoyed body surfing and having fun in the water. A few months later he began dating a girl who enjoyed sailing, and they had a fantastic time skimming across the surface of the ocean on a catamaran with the wind in their hair.
While Adam enjoyed these new activities, what brought him the most satisfaction was knowing that he had overcome his childhood limitation. Unlike the little elephant, Adam had broken the mental rope that had restricted him in the past and he was now enjoying his newfound freedom.
