Overcoming common barriers to personal growth

I wanted to share with you today some of the ways I have learnt in how to overcome our limitations and our very often unconcious defences and limitations. We are often not aware of these and how they can limit our personal growth and I believe support in this area to be of much need & importance.

There are methods we can use to overcome our limitations and barriers to personal growth, however awareness is the first and perhaps most important step. Many of our defences and limitations may be operating subconciously, but they can often be brought to the surface with enough self- awareness.

‘Awareness in and of itself is transformative’ ~ Ken Wilbur

THE BARRIERS/ LIMITATIONS – IDENTIFY THEM.

• Firstly and I think most commonly is the barrier of fear, this can be a tremendous barrier for many and can take various different forms. It could be fear of failing, fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, amongst many others, but essentially the barrier is always the same – the feeling of fear.
• Doubting your ability or the possibility that you can achieve what it is you’ve set out to do. These doubts can also come from others around you, who may knowingly/unknowingly cause you to doubt in your true abilities.
•  Not being specific enough about the goals you have set out to achieve, this is highly important to create self belief and the cause to take necessary actions.
• Not taking responsibility for your own life & outcomes.
• Expecting immediate results – in short this is being impatient with both yourself and your environment therefore putting you out of line in the process of being and becoming. Although we all may have goals we want to achieve, the greatest gifts I believe come from the journey to achieving them.

WAYS TO OVERCOME BARRIERS/LIMITATIONS

For each person the journey is different, but I think essentially the ways in which we can successfully overcome these barriers in particular can be common to us all. These are specific ways that are commonly used towards success.

1. Awareness –  as we have already identified if you know your limitations you can overcome them – ‘Knowledge is power.’
2. Have Specific set goals and write them down to increase certainty. There is a specific method you can follow when setting goals and this is called the SMART approach which stands for; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. So ensure that the goals you set meet these objectives, this will increase your confidence and motivation in achieving them. Break the goal down in to smaller steps to make it more realistic, measurable and achievable and ensure you are specific in what you want to achieve and set a date.
3. Believe in yourself – This is critical, you must believe that it is possible. Tell yourself everyday that you can do it and take specific daily actions until you achieve it. This will increase your self-bellief and when you do achieve your goal, which you will, you will become more and more confident in your ability to achieve further goals.
4. Take full responsibility for you life and outcomes – you have the power to make changes what ever your current circumstances may be. As Bruce Lee states ‘To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.’
5. ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ ~ Susan Jeffers. If you haven’t read this book I would highly reccomend it. It changed my life dramatically. As a child and throughout my teens I struggled tremendously with fear and it had a lot of power over me. However after reading this book I decided to not allow it to have that power anymore and I took it back. As Susan Jeffers explains in her book , by acting in spite of fear you take away its power and increase your own. In my experience this is the best method by far of overcoming any fear, it is hard at first but the confidence and self- belief you will gain from doing it makes it highly worth the effort.
6. Let go of the fixation on the outcome. As I stated earlier although you have set a goal which you wish to achieve, it is about the journey; this is where you learn about yourself, your purpose and where all the memories and rewards come. If you remain too fixated on the outcome, you will likely miss out on all these benefits and give up if you dont see results quickly enough. In my experience within the health and fitness industry, I see this very often and so I try to get people to focus on the more short term benefits that are gained from exercise, of which there are many. Focus on these and the long-term results will come.

Miranda.L.Adams

Mirala Health.