Overcoming Our Mental Barriers

I was raised in a conservative household where my Dad worked full time and my Mom worked part time. My parents never owned businesses or rental properties while I was growing up and so I never thought about business or real estate or being an entrepreneur .

In hindsight I think that if I had been exposed to these opportunities when I was growing up, I would have made the transition to business, real estate and entrepreneurship in my teens or early twenties.

I did buy my first rental property when I was 25 but I did not start my first business until I was 34 and we were expecting our first child – not the best time to start your first business! Ideally I should have been starting my first business at University when I was 18. I had SO much time, and SO little responsibility.

Buying my first rental property and starting my first business required breaking mental barriers such as:

- Our family are not entrepreneurs ;- You make money by working hard for someone else;
- Only wealthy people own a property portfolio.

We all have Mental Barriers we need to overcome in order to succeed.

Once you identify where society, your education or other people have caused you to adopt unnecessary mental barriers you will have the ability to effectively overcome them and move forward with speed and agility.

No matter who we are or what we do, we all have mental barriers that get in the way of what we want to achieve.In almost all cases these mental barriers have no basis in reality. Most of the time they are barriers put up by our upbringing, education or culture.

Consider the following statements:

“I’m not bright enough to go to college.”
“I don’t have the confidence to talk to an audience.”
“I don’t have the skill to play that sport.”
“I couldn’t be successful in business.”
“I will never be in that financial position.”
“I can’t achieve what he has achieved.”
“That goal is beyond me.”

All of these statements represent a mental barrier that is irrational and has no basis in reality. You probably have many similar statements or mental barriers you allow to get in your way. Consider the “Four Minute Mile Barrier”. In the late 1940s it was considered impossible for a human being to run a mile in under four minutes. The majority of runners and the public believed this. Because the mile runners believed it, no-one ran the mile in under four minutes. This is until May 1954 Roger Bannister ran it in 3:59:4.

Interestingly only six weeks later Bannister’s record was broken and after that, four minute miles were commonplace. Once the mental barrier was broken, people’s performance matched the reality that a mile could be run in under four minutes.

You need to think about and analyze your own mental barriers because they are what hold you back, not the reality of what you can achieve.

Tip #1 IdentifyWrite down the mental barrier that has been holding you back the most. Underneath it, write down the negative consequences you have already experienced through holding that belief.

For example:“I could never start a business.”

"I have had some great ideas that I am sure would be successful and profitable in business but I am still stuck in my job making money for someone else."

Tip #2 Empower Yourself
On a separate piece of paper write the mental barrier. Then write down an opposite positive statement. Finally, most important, cross out the mental barrier.

For example:
“I could never start a business.”
“I would be very successful in business.”

Tip #3 Use the Power of Your MindWrite your new positive statement somewhere prominent and read it aloud to yourself every day with energy and enthusiasm. I have used this technique myself and it really works.

Yours for more Success.

Oli Hille www.Amazon.com/author/1