30 Self-Defeating Beliefs Common to Women

Here are some common limiting beliefs that many women have shared with me during workshops and sessions. Check any statements that resonate with you. Are you willing to ask yourself a few questions to change your beliefs and change your life?

___1. I’m not enough (e.g., good, educated, thin, young, smart, rich enough).

___2. I need to make others happy so I won’t be rejected.

___3. I can’t be happy until he/she changes.

___4. I have to earn other people’s approval to feel good about myself.

___5. If I let people really get to know me, they won’t like me.

___6. I have to stay in the relationship because I can’t make it on my own.

___7. If I’m happy even when others are suffering, it means I don’t care.

___8. I can’t be happy until the relationship/career is different.

___9. If they really loved me, they would _________________.

___10. I need to do more and more to be worthy.

___11. I don’t know what I want.

___12. I shouldn’t put my needs before others’.

___13. I’ll never really change.

___14. I’m responsible for other people’s happiness, and they’re responsible for mine.

___15. I don’t deserve love, success, money, fame, etc.

___16. If I pursue my own interests, my relationships will suffer.

___17. I don’t have time to nurture myself.

___18. It’s too late for me to find happiness and success.

___19. If I speak my mind, I’ll be rejected.

___20. I should be farther along than I am.

___21. I’d better not be too happy, or I’ll just have farther to fall.

___22. Things will never work out for me.

___23. I shouldn’t have to ask my partner for what I want.

___24. I’m a bad/unlovable person.

___25. I need fear to motivate me and keep me in check.

___26. I’ll never make enough money.

___27. I’ll always have to struggle, while others have it easier.

___28. Whatever I’m doing, I should be doing something else.

___29. Health problems will always keep me from happiness and success.

___30. I can’t do it.

If any of these statements ring true for you, it may be time to take your destiny into your own hands by dissolving the beliefs that sabotage your success and happiness.

What is a belief? It is a perception of reality, or something you were told that you had no reason to doubt. How do you know that you have a self-defeating belief? If you are feeling some way you don't like feeling, you are probably believing something that's not true.

Choose one limiting belief and ask yourself these questions:

• Do I believe that?
• Why do I believe that?
• What seems true about that?
• What might concern me if that belief were gone? (What might happen that I would not like?)

These questions give you a powerful starter kit for creating happiness beyond belief.

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Bio: Lenora specializes in helping people transform their lives. She offers consultations to individuals and groups using The Option Method. For more information about Lenora's Workshops, TeleClasses, newsletter, and personal sessions, visit www.ChangeLimitingBeliefs.com

© 2003-2009 Lenora Boyle, All rights reserved.

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