Limiting Belief or Empowering belief?

A typical teacher at Brockley County Grammar School

One of my strongest beliefs over the years is that I need to be stressed to work effectively. I went to a prominent school in London where great results and a university education were expected as a minimum requirement. The school would send 3 or four students a year to either Oxford or Cambridge universities (world renowned for high educational standards and the best that the UK has to offer).

You can just imagine how for a certain amount of the students this would cause a lot of pressure. Some would handle it better than others but my way of handling it was to become the 'class joker' which I did in order to deflect attention away from low self-esteem and my studies at a school where I was forced to do what I didn't really want to do, but had to do it nonetheless.

In the early years my results were understandably poor and I was seen as lazy. However, by the time I was 14 or 15 I began to realise that passing my exams was important even though I didn't enjoy learning in the way I was being taught. I began to make more of an effort then. The point is that all of my school reports bar none would express the teacher's opinion that I work best under pressure.

Throughout my entire life to date I've seen this as a positive belief and used it to spur me on in my endeavours. I was doing pretty well too. However, eventually I came to the conclusion that it's the same belief that has had me thinking that it makes life too hard and that's why over the years I'd left so many projects incomplete. Does this sound like anything you've experienced?

I know this belief works for a lot of people (it worked for me when I was at school) but it's very difficult to sustain over a long period of time, so by the time we reach 50 (or in many cases way earlier) we can experience all sorts of problems such as burnout, depression and all of the other side issues that fatigue can lead to in our lives.

I decided to change my interpretation of this once empowering belief to a limiting belief and replaced it with the more conscious belief that working hard is fun and far less stressful when you're enjoying what you do. It reduces stress to the Nth degree when you're passionate about what you're doing.

If you feel less productive, or just plain fed up or tired as you get older, try a new belief on for size. Take a look at the areas of your life that aren't working as well as you'd like. Challenge an outdated belief that you've carried along from childhood and see if you can come up with one that's more empowering. Then TAKE ACTION on your new belief! You might surprise yourself.

I'd be interested to know how that worked for you. Please leave a comment.