…is what Alan Weiss, consultant extraordinaire, was telling 250 people at a workshop earlier this month in Boston.
I was in attendance to hear his business wisdom, but while furiously taking notes, I found myself thinking that his marketing mantra shared a common theme with my coaching philosophy: most of us believe what we tell ourselves.  And it’s powerful stuff.

I’ve experienced this mind trickery first hand.  For a long time, there was an almost inaudible whisper within me that kept me from pursuing my passion of coaching.  Even though I yearned to coach, I shied away from really going after it because I thought and believed the fear that I couldn’t do it.  Wouldn’t make it.  Wasn’t good enough.  It was the better part of a year before I realized what I was telling myself (note: a coach can help to expedite this process!), and then I developed a mantra of my own: being a chicken is not enough of a reason not to do something that I really want to do.  Not profound, but profoundly gets the job done for me, and when fear rears its head, I recognize it for what it is, instead of subscribing to its truth.

Like me, you likely have some limiting beliefs churned out by your ever-active brain, which allows fear to masquerade as thought. Your tall tales might sound something like this: I’m not enough, can’t do what I really want to, just can’t!, will certainly fail if I try, can’t risk failing, won’t be successful, must be concerned about what others think, have to stay in a job that I hate, won’t ever have enough (love, money, fill in the blank), etc.  And those fears probably feel deeply true.  When you begin to question their certainty, your brain will likely defend them.  Fiercely.  You can choose to continue to listen to those fears, take them for truth, and live your life by them.

Or you can become a watcher.

You can observe your own thinking (or get a coach to help you initially) and begin to bring some of your fears into the light.  It may not sound like much, but questioning our limiting beliefs often creates an inner shift that frees us up to manifest a wonderfully different external life.  Our perceptions do create our realities.

Take it from me.