Breaking these 5 Self Limiting Beliefs can make us fly

A couple of weeks back I wrote about self-limiting beliefs that hold women back. And I shared the example of the elephant tethered to a wooden peg. To break free from the little peg that holds us down, it’s important to examine our self-limiting beliefs. The good news is that these behaviors are just habits which need to be broken. We do not need to blame either a woman’s gender or her personality but spend time to understand these beliefs that are holding us back.  Let’s examine the conditioning and beliefs that hold us back.

1. Environment

Right from childhood our environment has conditioned women not to be an ambitious career woman. It has pegged virtue and roles for women as a homemaker putting the needs of family before herself. We may have ‘progressed’ to women working but placing career over family priorities is quite unacceptable. Being ambitious is not considered a good trait even by your male colleagues. It’s ingrained in us at an identity level and reinforced from time to time. Like the school ‘coffee meets that are scheduled at 11:00 am’. How are working mothers supposed to attend?

Girls grow up being affirmed for their precision and correctness while supporting others. Boys, on the other hand, are often celebrated for daring individual exploits, competitive prowess, and winning—even in families that pride themselves on gender equality.

2. Work-life balance means the same to all. 

No Way! Women clearly have responsibilities of home, parents, kids, laundry, meals …. etc. There is no point expending energy fighting that. Thus ‘Work-life-balance’ for women is different so women are expected to find a work around. Jump the hurdles to win the race. 

3. Many lives -Many roles and we are a ‘super-woman’ who can manage it all.

We are expected to be an inspiring role model, as a mother, daughter, sister, wife, and have a  successful career.  Essentially women are supposed to master every role and be perfect at every at everything we do.  The cost of perfectionism is often personal stress and being demanding of others. 

4. Men are from Mars 

There is gender-specific strengths that should be leveraged. Most of these traits complement each other and can build mutually beneficial competencies. Like many women are considered too emotional. These should be used as strength and combined with good networking to balance it out. “The more inclusive your ally web, the more robust your support”

So women don’t have to become ‘men’ in a man’s world.  

5. Mastery walk

Mastery of tasks is vital to everyone to become successful in the corporate world. However, the power of expertise alone is not enough for a woman to make it to the top. It may be the “impostor syndrome” Fearing that they may not actually have what it takes to merit their position. Women may unknowingly minimize their presence and allow space for others thus not appearing authoritative.

In my next blog I will be talking about strategies to dealing with self-limiting beliefs.

At the ’12 Weeks to Leadership’ program, we want to support all women to be their better self. Join our LinkedIn group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9024691/

To know more about our first free masterclass on Imposter Syndrome: Challenging your gremlins write to us on womenleadership@thepurposeroom.org