Stop holding yourself back from success
It’s a bold statement but think about it: ARE YOU holding yourself back? Do you find yourself not achieving as many professional or personal goals as you would want? Do you set goals at certain times of the week but then go on autopilot and lose track of them? Are you noticing you’ve shifted backward against the direction you originally wanted with something? Do you want to take a certain topic to your next level? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, it might be time to explore how to break repetitive cycles and overcome self-imposed limitations.
Explore more with this topic in this month’s Coach’s Corner: Shifting Your Mindset.
Limiting Beliefs: Opinions that one believes to be the absolute truth.
In prior articles, we’ve discussed Limiting Beliefs as one of the barriers to overcoming self-created obstacles for growth. Additional articles have broached actions you might have taken to give life to Limiting Beliefs. For example, in a recent piece on nutrition for the brain, we spoke about the value of eating to give your mind a more substantial advantage in tackling work and life. Merging these two article topics together helps us conclude that we often take Limiting Actions to manifest additional truth to our Limiting Beliefs.
As attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and staff at LOIS, we ALL have a shared obligation to provide the best service possible to our clients. We ALL also have a shared commitment to pursue a successful life throughout our individual personal days. While the latter involves defining success via a specific formula, our #ALLCAPS model focuses on giving you guidance towards client service so that positive results are significantly clearer to achieve. The two topics are very closely linked because, by default, a successful day at work doing the best for the client comes with professional rewards that lead to personal gain. The catch comes when we assume that not all actions and logic lead to our growth. This is where Limiting Actions start taking control, and the Model of Change starts to spin downward.
Imagine being at that favorite restaurant of yours. The one you always get great meals from that you’re never disappointed in. In anticipation of being there, you haven’t eaten all day, and you finally order your favorite meal. After what seems like an eternity spent watching the same waiter you ordered from bringing everyone else their plates of delicious sizzling delicacies, he finally brings your dish. The fragrant foods make your mouth water, and the utter excitement makes you instantly start digging in. Within a short number of minutes, you consume everything on your plate, leaving you needing to answer the question of satisfaction in your mind. Did you enjoy the meal? Were you so excited about it that you convinced yourself you’d want it so much, and did it prompt you to eat it as quickly as possible? Did you give yourself time to enjoy the experience of the meal rather than putting the focus on the food itself? These Limiting-Actions all resulted from the Limiting-Belief that the enjoyment is solely tied to the taste of the food. Your mind dove into the idea that your food simply had to be eaten to create fulfillment. It further thought that the best way to achieve immediate satisfaction was to eat it as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that shift of thought is what gives life to those Limiting Actions.
Take the same theme and look for examples within yourself where your actions go on autopilot, and the purpose behind the action becomes effectively irrelevant. Do you notice activities that you might be diving into quickly on a daily basis? Are things (like workouts, reading, walks, writing) getting skipped for less substantially relevant things (like TV shows, social media scrolling, texting, etc)?
To start the resolution process, ask yourself these personal questions:
- How can I shift my mind to focus on overall improvement instead of day-to-day actions?
- How can I sometimes slow down and be fully present in the moment?
On a professional level, try thinking about these questions:
- What is holding me back from achieving greater professional success?
- What are ways I can adjust my approaches to improve the results for clients?
- What actions that I take stem from Limiting Beliefs?
- What methods should I apply to make sure I’m not falling into Limiting Actions?
As you ask yourself the questions, do you catch yourself casually thinking about pieces of examples even more? If so, start considering solutions to resolve the thinking by remembering your overarching goals.
Creativity, aggression, professionalism, and service are guides at work, but the overarching goal is to do the best for the clients we are helping. So how do we develop a strategy with that thought? By logically processing to a shifted mindset.
Take a look at this chart for some examples:
| Limiting Belief | Limiting Action | Over-Arching Goal | Shifted Mindset |
|---|---|---|---|
| “As long as I do what needs to be done in a case, I’m doing really well.” | Following the same or similar ideas for each case leading to the concept of routine. | Using #ALLCAPS as a vehicle to giving clients the best service possible. | “I can’t do the same thing over and over . . . I need to tailor my case actions to the individual case.” |
| “The only way to get more referrals is if I can banter with the Adjuster.” | Keeping e-mails and calls short because the Adjuster doesn’t like to talk much, and the client doesn’t really refer much anyway. | Using #ALLCAPS as a vehicle to getting more referrals. | “Calling the client with creative or aggressive wins to celebrate with them will show I’m in their corner and help them feel more comfortable referring cases to me.” |
| “I found evidence that will help considerably diminish exposure on this case, so I’m going through the process, and hopefully, it’ll help.” | Putting all attention into the discovered “win” information so that it takes over the hopeful strategy. | Using #ALLCAPS as a reminder that a quicker settlement might save the client in legal expenses and time. | “I can call opposing counsel once everything is appropriately filed and leverage this information. Instead of drawing it out, I should push to settle for a lower amount now.” |
| “I’m never going to catch up with all the things I need to get done.” | Not prioritizing and/or delegating so that the tasks keep building up. | Using #ALLCAPS as a reminder that strategy comes from organization. | “I need to set up a strategy meeting time to create a plan to tackle tasks efficiently.” |
Visualizing the organization of thoughts above helps to see patterns surrounding Limiting Actions. Typically, there are signs you can notice to help you get on track to breaking these destructive actions. Some of the ones from above include:
- Falling into an unplanned routine
- Developing assumptions based on assumptions
- Straying away from the “big picture ideas”
- Letting things get overly-complicated
Other signs can also include:
- Using specific details to outweigh facts
- Prioritizing smaller tasks over time-sensitive ones
- Shifting attention to a problem that isn’t truly the focus needing attention
Take a look at how these shifts occur in our daily lives too:
| Limiting Belief | Limiting Action | Over-Arching Goal | Shifted Mindset |
|---|---|---|---|
| “I can just microwave food when it’s just me eating. Why bother going through so much effort for just me?” | Simplifying meal after meal and ignoring nutritional and self-appreciating needs. | Living a happy, healthy, successful life. | “I can learn to cook properly-portioned meals for myself that I’ll feel proud to enjoy daily.” |
| “I’m never going to be able to learn another language. I have too much to do anyway.” | Adding things to your list of chores so they get longer and longer. | Living a happy, healthy, successful life. | “I can set aside one hour, three times a week, to try a language learning program so I can keep myself focused on something I deeply want to achieve!” |
Awareness is effectively one of the first steps to helping you adjust Limiting Actions and destroy Limiting Beliefs. That’s where the key to improvement comes in: the more you notice how to stop holding yourself back, the more you’ll be able to flourish and succeed. ALL Limiting Beliefs and ALL Limiting Actions should simply be seen as things that hold you back.
Work towards becoming aware of what you convince yourself to be accurate and what actions you take from those convictions. Then, simply give yourself the efforts to counter that thought process by focusing on the true goals at hand. Do this enough times, and your brain will start to rewire itself to find solutions faster, and you’ll notice things will improve exponentially.
Start right now. Answer the following questions for yourself:
- Personal or professional, what is a Limiting Belief I’ve noticed I have?
- What Limiting Actions do I take as a result of that specific Limiting Belief?
- What is my overarching goal when it comes to this topic?
- What are actions I can take to shift my mindset away from the Limiting Belief?
The Firm offers a wide array of options to help overcome and resolve Limiting Actions and Limiting Beliefs. The Employee Experience Team is always at the ready to help out. Workout Wednesday gives you an option to reset the mind with instant positive action. Your mentors and Directors are always available to help work through ideas. Your Employee Growth Coach is at the ready when you want to talk through your thoughts, and the Leadership Team is always prepared to guide you through different case-specific solutions.
If you noticed the thought of any Limiting Beliefs or Limiting Actions while reading through this article, utilize any of the resources mentioned and take the shift to stop holding yourself back from success!
If you notice a certain autopilot mindset happening throughout your days, utilize any of the resources mentioned and take the shift to stop holding yourself back from success!
If you know there are things that you want to improve on, utilize any of the resources mentioned and take the shift to stop holding yourself back from success!
Let’s make each day better than the last!
