He writes that a huge part of what holds us back from experiencing a better life personally, professionally, and spiritually is due to what’s called: “Limiting Beliefs.” It’s a subconscious foundation of beliefs which impacts what we think about ourselves and our capabilities, along with our expectations about life in general. Our conscious mind processes information and makes decisions but we’re often not aware that our subconscious mind kicks some data up for the conscious mind to process as well. This is what causes us to consciously know what we should do in various situations but find ourselves doing just the opposite and we don't know why. How different might our lives be if we did figure out the ”why,” behind our decision making?
I recently talked to a couple of people about trivia competitions in our area. One of the individuals I was talking to (Kristen), said she gets mad at herself because she doesn’t speak up often enough during the competitions. Someone would shout out the answer and she realized that she knew it but was afraid to say anything in case she got the answer wrong.
I thought about what Terry wrote in his book and this situation was a perfect example, so I asked her why she was afraid to put herself out there. I don’t have time to go into the details, but it ended up being a great conversation because she realized that the other participants didn’t really care if she got something wrong. Quite frankly, she thought they were paying more attention to her than they actually were. I’d say we’re all guilty of this at times in a variety of settings. We get self-conscious and get in our heads about what people are thinking about us when they're probably not giving us a second thought. We begin questioning what we said during our conversations when more than likely the people we talked to don't even remember what we said. In Kristen's case, all these trivia contestants really care about is getting to the next question to see if they can get it right. Her belief system that if she got a question wrong she'd be embarrassing herself, was holding her back from enjoying the game and gaining more self-confidence.
Terry mentions that the results in our lives stem from what we believe at both the conscious and subconscious levels. He wants us to question what we believe instead of going through the motions day in and day out and ending up in the same place five years from now that we are today. Certainly, if we’re happy with how things are going then that’s great, but if we feel things could be better, it’s probably time to find out why they aren’t. “The costs of not examining our thoughts are high.” – Terry J. Scroggins.
What if the things we believe about ourselves aren’t exactly true or not even true at all? What if we’re basing our opinions on faulty data and that’s why we’re not experiencing the life we had hoped? Our subconscious mind stores information that is out of context all the time. It doesn’t logically decide what’s valid and what isn’t, like our conscious mind attempts to do, it just sees and feels things and then plugs it in our mental database. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of people over the years who were smart as can be but often made terrible decisions. Their intellect, organizational skills, being goal oriented etc., that comes from their conscious mind sometimes isn’t enough to overcome limiting beliefs that are running in their subconscious minds. Some people think that we can’t do anything about the impact of our subconscious, but they’re wrong and Terry explains why.
By the way, it doesn't include seeing a therapist to bring out our deepest darkest secrets. It's in having a road map of how to track down our limiting beliefs and get to the bottom of what caused them to see if they're legitimate. Maybe some beliefs are legitimate, but there's no doubt that a lot of them aren't and they've been wrecking our lives.
I didn’t do the topic of “limiting beliefs,” justice so if you’re interested in learning more please check out Terry J. Scroggins’s book: Start Here, on Amazon. The book is atypical as he isn’t an author per se, but an extraordinary life coach/teacher and speaker. He decided to not go the usual route of having a bunch of editors modify his content and kept the book more conversational; basically, the good and the bad of information flow as if you were just sitting around the table talking with him. He didn’t want to create a boring textbook. He’s not an academia, he’s a regular guy with tremendous life lessons who has always been passionate about why people do what they do. If you’re looking for a book that will stretch your mind (and knowledge seekers usually are), Start Here is a good one.
One last thing. Since the book just came out, it would help greatly, if you like the book, to provide a positive comment on Amazon. The understanding of limited beliefs is critical so if more people would pick up the book, more lives could be changed. Thanks.