I had an interesting aha the other day. I received a check from one of my coaching clients and the thought that ran through my head was, “I should wait a few days to cash this.” That thought felt familiar so I explored what was underneath it. The reason I didn’t want to cash the check right away was that I didn’t want to seem greedy. Wow! A good business practice would be to cash the check when it came in and yet I waited.
I started looking at all of the times I had that underlying thought of – this would seem greedy. It certainly wasn’t a thought that I was conscious of and I found many surprises. Yesterday I bought some strawberries and had that thought again, “I should wait to eat these because somebody else might want them.” It’s not about other people are more important or I don’t deserve to have these. The underlying limiting belief is – if I ate them I might be greedy. Here’s the reality of what often happens with strawberries in my house. I buy the strawberries, wait for somebody else to “have their turn” eating them, nobody eats them, they turn moldy, and then I throw them out and feel guilty for not eating them. Yikes!
The reason I am telling you these stories today is because we all have these sneaky beliefs that we aren’t even aware of and they color our lives, sometimes in small ways and other times in enormous ways. This week my focus is on noticing when I don’t take action on something because I have that underlying feeling of greedy. Then I’m tossing the judgment of being greedy out the window and acting. By the way, those strawberries were really good. I even ate one in the parking lot of the store.
I didn’t even know that I had the belief that I would seem greedy and I sure wouldn’t have ever linked checks and strawberries as examples. What are your sneaky beliefs that limit you? Have fun exploring those beliefs and noticing when they pop up. They often pop up in the oddest ways. Comment below to share your aha.
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