You Don’t Actually Want to Let Go of Your Limiting Beliefs

Reading time: 7 minutes

“How is this belief serving you?”

“It’s not.”

“Not at all?”

“No. That’s exactly why I’m trying to get rid of it.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

Silence.

This is a conversation I’ve had in different forms more times than I can count in coaching.

Most people come to coaching because they know something isn’t working and want to correct it.

In trading performance, this almost always means replacing limiting beliefs while rebuilding self-trust through repetition: gradually exposing yourself to the same triggers and practicing self-control while reinforcing safety.

There’s always a behavior people identify as “the problem.”

I need to stop doing this.

I need to start doing that.

I know this belief is holding me back.

What they don’t expect is that (after identifying the very limiting belief) I ask them how that belief is serving them. Because one of the most consistent things I’ve learned through coaching is this:

We don’t keep beliefs that give us absolutely nothing. Even the ones we desperately want to get rid of.

So before you ask how to get rid of the belief holding you back, there’s a more uncomfortable question you must ask yourself:

What are you getting from keeping it?

In this post, I want to show you why the beliefs you’re trying hardest to get rid of are also the ones you’re most invested in keeping — and what has to happen before you can let them go.