Success Is Subjective, So How Do You Define Success?

Success is subjective, whether you are prepared to believe that or not. How do you define success?

The way you define success may be wildly different from the way your best friend, family, or neighbors define it. There’s a very good chance it differs wildly from the way society defines it.

How Do You Define Success?

Societally, success revolves around material wealth – it means climbing the career ladder, whether you want to or not, buying a bigger house, driving a more expensive car, and… then what?

Therein lies the issue – you find yourself chasing society’s definition of success without stopping to consider whether that is your definition of success.

So, while it’s important to discuss the need to permit yourself to succeed, it’s just as important that you decide what success means to you. Just how do you define success?

So, let’s look at the barriers that hold you back from realizing your potential and find strategies to overcome those obstacles.

It’s time to break free of self-imposed limitations and society-imposed expectations – this should be your journey toward success, both personally and professionally.

Self-Limiting Beliefs

First, we will set about identifying the common beliefs that hinder your success. Then, we can examine the impact of negative self-talk and how it can alter self-perception.

You can’t overlook your childhood for potential origins of self-limiting beliefs, but it also tends to stem from societal influences. It’s also important to look at the role your past failures have played in shaping your beliefs about your capabilities.

Your self-limiting beliefs are deeply ingrained. These perceptions or convictions that you hold about yourself or your capabilities, prevent you from growing personally and professionally.

Self-limiting beliefs are mental barriers, you form them as a result of childhood influences, societal influences, internalized messages, and your personal experiences. So, learning how to recognize and understand your self-limiting beliefs is an important step in overcoming and unlocking your potential.

Self-limiting beliefs manifest in many forms and are simply attitudes and thoughts that create self-doubt about your skills and abilities. This undermines your confidence and as a result, will hinder your progress.

Limiting beliefs include thoughts like I’m just not smart enough and I don’t have what it takes to succeed. Those limiting beliefs are ability-related. There are also limiting beliefs around worthiness and opportunity.

Worthiness limiting beliefs include Others deserve this more than I do, and I don’t deserve to find success. Opportunity-limiting beliefs include There just aren’t any opportunities for someone with my skills/abilities and There’s always someone better than me who wins.

Origin Story

Now that you have a clearer view of self-limiting beliefs, let’s work on tracing the origin story. You can’t dismantle a limiting belief until you figure out where it’s coming from.

Your childhood is a good place to start when it comes to how you define success, because your teachers, parents, and caregivers can unintentionally instill certain thoughts and ideas in your head that stick with you forever. If you find something a struggle and someone makes a negative comment about it, you may hold onto the idea that you aren’t capable of doing that thing. If you are reprimanded for certain behavior, you may hold onto the idea that you are the behavior itself.

Society and culture also have a role to play, from the cultural norms you are expected to fall in line with to the stereotypes society expects you to follow. You also have to contend with media portrayals, and that isn’t going away.

While it used to be magazine media portrayals that pushed self-limiting beliefs, now we have social media portrayals to worry about and those are far more accessible.

Your past failures also play a big role in shaping self-limiting beliefs. If you have experienced setbacks in the past, there is often a fear that revolves around repeating your mistakes.

It’s easy to fall into the limiting self-belief trap, especially when you have experienced failure as so many of us have. When you have a particularly painful failure, it can fuel feelings of inadequacy. Those two things become intertwined, and it can be stifling.

The Impact

How do self-limiting beliefs impact people in reality? They touch various parts of your life and can have profound effects.

Stifled Potential

If you fall for self-limiting beliefs, you are more likely to underestimate your abilities, which will ultimately stifle your potential. How can you tap into your true potential if you don’t even believe it’s in there?

A lot of people are unwilling to take on new challenges because they are convinced, they can’t do it, which is limiting personal growth.

Fear of Risk

If you believe you are incompetent, you are less likely to take risks. If you are fearful of taking risks, then you will have a hard time trying new things and putting yourself out there.

Taking a risk could lead to failure, and that feels like the worst thing possible. That anticipation of failure can prevent you from taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Poor Decision-Making

If you lack self-confidence, you aren’t exactly in a good place to make decisions. So, if you’re making decisions in this mindset, there’s a good chance you aren’t making the best decisions. There is also an issue with decisions that align with your goals because self-limiting beliefs make it difficult to recognize opportunities when they come your way.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

First, to overcome self-limiting beliefs you need an awareness of those beliefs, which means you have to identify them. You need to recognize your self-limiting beliefs and acknowledge that they exist and that they are holding you back.

You can use a self-reflective journaling process to identify any self-limiting beliefs and recurring negative thoughts. Once you come to grips with your limiting beliefs, you can challenge and reframe them more positively. If you have a negative thought, replace it with a positive thought. If you notice a limiting belief, you can use positive affirmations to put it in its place.

You can seek professional support if you feel the need – a life coach, mentor, or therapist can serve as a useful guide to navigate overcoming self-limiting beliefs that you can’t seem to shake on your own. There’s no shame in asking for help when you need it.

You can also work toward overcoming self-limiting beliefs by learning continuously and actively developing your skills. If you have a specific inadequacy, you can build competence in that to counter those limiting beliefs.

Permitting Yourself To Succeed – The Psychology

When it comes to permitting yourself to succeed – there’s a psychology you have to understand. The power of positive thinking cannot be overlooked – your mindset can seriously influence your success. So, start by thinking of different ways you can adopt a growth mindset to build positivity to develop success.

There’s a need to overcome the fear of failure – you have to analyze the source of those fears and consider how it has impacted you thus far. Establish strategies to reframe your failure for what it actually is – it isn’t the end of the world, it’s an opportunity to learn. That means you have to build self-efficacy to support that shift in your mindset because it’s also crucial to success.

Success isn’t all about external factors, your mindset and psychological well-being count. You have to permit yourself to succeed, especially when there are so many different factors at play, interrupting your concept of success and your capabilities. So, let’s look at the steps you can take to do just that!

Positive Thinking

Mindset can be a determining factor in your success, so it’s important to understand the difference between a growth and a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset is one of positivity – it’s believing that you are capable of achieving whatever you want and that if you lack certain skills, you are capable of developing those. Whereas a fixed mindset is limiting. Someone with a fixed mindset is convinced that they can’t develop skills or learn new things – it is what it is.

Visualization

Visualization can be an incredibly powerful tool and it’s one that you can use to create positive mental images surrounding yourself and your potential for success. Envision your success, visualize the steps you plan to take, and picture yourself succeeding.

Self-Talk

Positive self-talk and affirmations are incredibly useful tools in restructuring your mindset and reprogramming your subconscious. Transform your negative self-talk with affirmations and make your inner dialogue empowering, make it constructive, it should serve you!

Deal With Your Fear Of Failure

Get to grips with your fear of failure to explore the roots of those fears and reframe them as a natural part of the process. Put coping mechanisms in place for dealing with fear as it crops up and get ready to bounce back fast!

Self-Efficacy And Resilience

Self-efficacy is going to play a big role in your journey, and you can draw from several sources to nurture yours. Past successes are a good place to start because they show a mastery of particular skills and experiences that you can use as a boost to your confidence and self-belief. You can also draw self-efficacy by vicariously influencing and experiencing the achievements of others.

You can set goals regularly and increase them incrementally to build your confidence and surround yourself with people who support you.

How quickly do you bounce back after facing adversity? The greater your resilience, the quicker you can bounce back from difficult situations. There is a strong link between long-term success and resilience. Your mindset is a good place to start in cultivating it. So is learning how to adapt and persevere when faced with obstacles.

Permitting Yourself To Succeed

• Set realistic goals
• • Use the SMART model and break your big goals into smaller tasks.

• • Your goals should always align with your values because if they don’t, you’re chasing something that won’t bring you fulfillment.

• • Celebrate your achievements – even the smallest of victories deserve a lap.

• Cultivate support
• • Surround yourself with positive people and minimize your exposure to negative, toxic people.

• • Seek out a mentor who can provide you with valuable guidance.

• • Seek constructive feedback from people you trust and respect. Just be sure you know the difference between constructive criticism and destructive negativity.

• Nurture resilience
• • Learn to adapt to setbacks by cultivating your resilience levels by reframing setbacks as a learning experience.

• • Understand the importance of adjusting your strategies or adapting when faced with a challenge.

• • Mindfulness is a great addition to managing stress and there’s a connection between stress reduction and enhanced resilience.

• • Take the insights and lessons that come after failure and shift your perspective – failure is a stepping stone to success.

• Action Plan
• • You need to prioritize and organize by making a step-by-step plan to achieve your goals.

• • Create an accountability program by tracking your progress and tweaking your plan as necessary.

Final Thoughts – How Do You Define Success?

Understanding your self-limiting beliefs is a crucial aspect of the personal development process. If you want to be successful in your growth, you have to understand those beliefs that are holding you back and find a way to overcome them. You can do that by tackling the origins of your self-limiting beliefs.

Challenge them and start the process to reshape your mindset. With self-awareness, restructuring, and a dose of support, you can foster a positive environment for learning and breaking free of societal expectations. This journey is the start of you realizing your full potential.

Giving yourself permission to succeed is an active process and it’s an ongoing journey – you will need to commit to the process and plan strategically to succeed. By setting realistic goals and embracing resilience and a growth mindset, you can shake off limitations and self-limiting beliefs.

You have the power to redefine your narrative, but it lies in your willingness to comfort your self-limiting beliefs; it relies on your ability and commitment to dismantle those self-limiting beliefs. Once you start that process, you’re throwing the doors to growth wide open and that’s when you’ll see that you are capable of absolutely anything.

So how do you define success for yourself? Please comment below.