*****Guest Post ***** Entrepreneurs Are Your Beliefs Holding You Back?

I am pleased to present our guest blogger Adalia John.  Adalia has been a friend of mine through social media marketing avenue Facebook.  I feel as if  I hav known her for the longest while! In all the time I have known Adalia her integrity, experience, honesty and knowledge has shone through.  When I asked Adalia to write a guest post for me, she didn't hesitate.  I hope to return the pleasure one day.  Without further ado, here is the guest post written by Adalia.  Please leave a comment and share

When an entrepreneur or business owners fail, the economy, marketing, and/or business management gets the blame but more often than not the failure is the direct result of limiting belief issues.

This is a topic that’s not addressed in the media.

How many times have you listened to the news and heard that someone’s business failed because of his/her limiting beliefs? Never! Yet, limiting beliefs wreck havoc not only in our personal lives but in our professional lives as well

I recently did a consult with a general contractor who made tremendous growth in his business in the past three years. In 2011 his gross receipts will be 1.6 million dollars. Yet, he doesn’t have a clear picture, on a monthly basis, of how he spends his money. He treats accounting like dessert, to have or not to have.  He doesn’t know how much profit he has made or even if he’s making a profit. His limiting beliefs affected his business from the beginning but they began preparing him for their knock out punch (business failure) when he crossed the million dollar threshold. The good news is that he became aware that something was wrong. How could he, in spite of what’s being said about the economy, make 1.6 million dollars in gross receipts and have no clarity about his profit and loss.

Until he took action, the general contractor’s limiting beliefs about himself and money were taking him in a direction that would have sabotage his success. AND it would have shown up on the news as another statistic of the bad economy.

What is a limiting belief?

A limiting belief is a belief that negatively impacts your life experience. These beliefs are part of your subconscious mind and like all of your habits they’re on auto pilot, guiding your life without your conscious awareness.  At approximately age 0-8 you learned these beliefs from your parents or caretakers. Maybe, you were told something along these lines:

• you always mess up
• you never do anything right
• do you think we’re made of money?
• they’re filthy rich
• you’re dumb OR
• you were screamed at when you did something wrong
• you were not praised when you did something right
• you were not allowed to express the joy of being a child

At this age you were not equipped with the conscious awareness to filter these negative experiences. They were imbedded in your subconscious mind not just as a belief but as the truth about who you were, who you’ll become and the limits you were going to set for your success personally and professionally.

Are your limiting beliefs affecting your business?

 Not sure?

 Your limiting beliefs will show up as:

1.  Lack of confidence

 Do you say to yourself or others that you don’t have the confidence to do what needs to be done for your business?  Do you avoid doing the things you need to do for your business success: marketing, networking, blogging, follow-ups, education etc. OR are you still an employee when you want to be an entrepreneur?

 You’ve accepted that you aren’t capable.

2. Low self esteem

 Do you find yourself making time for others but not for yourself?

Do you keep yourself stuck by obsessing about what others think of you?

Are you overly concerned about how you treat others?

Are you afraid of been seen?

Do you focus more on why something will not work instead of why it will work?

Are you always asking others for their opinion but never trust your own decisions?

If you answer yes to these or similar questions – you’ve accepted you’re not good enough and not worthy of the success you’ve envisioned.

3. Procrastination

Some of my clients come to me wearing the badge “I’m a procrastinator.” They said it proudly and some even attached humor to it. Procrastination disguises your fears and cloaks your insecurities.

 Procrastination is a behavior that affects most of us to one degree or another but when procrastination creates a bottle neck in your business and keeps you from building a profitable business … then you have a major problem.

 Procrastinating is just another way of showing you don’t believe in YOU.

4. Lack of motivation

 Do you have a vision to be a successful internet marketer, entrepreneur, business owner, or blogger but find that lack of motivation keeps you from moving forward? Do you make half hearted attempts to take the necessary steps to make your dreams real? Are you confused by your inability to stay motivated even though you have all the tools you need for your success?

Lack of motivation keeps you in your comfort zone. Each persons comfort zone is at a different level. My general contractor’s comfort zone was 1 million dollars. Lack of motivation keeps some budding entrepreneurs from taking the first step to start their business. I’ve seen others whose comfort zone was making 30k per year and even though they wanted to make more money, lack of motivation kept them from raising the bar. I once mentored a coach who had a vision of coaching an average of 3 clients each week but she became unmotivated after consistently coaching two. Her limiting belief kept her comfortable with 2 clients per week.

How does lack of motivation affect the success of your business?

When you have confidence in your abilities and your self esteem is intact, you’ll be FIRED-UP to take action for your business success.

5. Excuses

This is the granddaddy of all limiting beliefs; think about it, you can find an excuse for everything:

• I can’t give up my day job in the pursuit of entrepreneurship, I need my insurance
• I’m not a good writer therefore I can’t blog
• I don’t want to do videos because I don’t look good on camera
• I don’t want to do voiceovers because my voice isn’t that great
• I’m afraid of meeting new people
• I may lose my privacy on the internet
• I’m not business minded

Excuses, excuses … they build upon themselves, one leads to another and before you know it … TICK TOCK, 2008 becomes 2009. 2009 becomes 2010. 2010 turns into 2011. 2011 becomes 2012 AND you’re still in the same spot.

Enough already!

This is not the end all of how limiting beliefs show up in our lives.

Change begins with awareness.

Reflect on your history, keep an open mind, be honest and you will identify your limiting beliefs and how they’ve affected your business aspirations. Accept your findings. Take inspired action TODAY to change your limiting beliefs to new beliefs that will make you unstoppable for your business success.

How to change your limiting beliefs?

You’re going to use your imagination, your emotions and a notebook.

1. Make two list
2. Name list one “Old Beliefs.”
3. Name list two “New Beliefs.”
4. Under “Old Beliefs” record each time a limiting belief shows up.
5. Record how it negatively impacts your business success.
6. Record the emotion(s) you’ve attached to this limiting belief. (very important to get in touch with the emotion(s) you’re feeling).
7. Under “New Beliefs” record the new belief you want to have.
8. Make a list of how this new belief will affect your business success.
9. Now strongly imagine the emotions you’ll feel with these positive results.
10. Read the “New Beliefs” list frequently but especially upon awakening in the morning and before going to bed at night
11. Remember to connect strongly to the emotions you’ll feel from your positive results. The stronger the connection the more quickly your subconscious mind will accept your new belief.
12. As a symbolic gesture … burn, bury, or shred your old beliefs.

Use this process for each of your beliefs and in time, approximately thirty days, the new belief will be accepted by your subconscious mind. You can also use hypnosis, NLP, EFT or a coach or mentor who’s an expert in this field.