Ed Anderson’s
“Mastering Your Quest”™
Section 1 - Limiting Beliefs Chapter 1 - “Winning the Battle for Our Dreams” © copyright 2008, all rights reserved
Who is Ed Anderson? Ed Anderson is a seeker and a student of life and success. As with many post-modern “Renaissance” men and women, his range of interests is broad and deep. Exploring those interests has taken him in many directions and exposed him to the teachings of many wise men – from Lao Tzu to Anthony Robbins. Through his journeys, Ed has glimpsed the secret heart of Capitalism and forged a path that unifies self-development with worldly success. Yet personal success is not enough. For Ed, true success means sharing the insight with which he has been blessed with others - giving back to his fellow man and completing the circle.
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What is the Quest? Most people settle for the safe, the average, and the secure. That’s OK for them, but is it OK for you? It’s a seductive vision; it draws us in and before we know it we’re one of the sheep. I don't know about you, but I want to be more than a sheep. That's why I was driven to discover my Quest in life. The Quest is that journey that calls to us all our lives. This is the journey where we use our passions, talents, and drive to live an amazing life. The Quest is many things: it's worldly success, it's personal growth and happiness, but fundamentally it's the passion that calls out to us in our dreams - the passion that calls out to us to live the life we could. Discovering your Quest is scary and harder than you can imagine, but only through discovering your personal Quest can you can reach your true potential. The journey there is starting now. If you admit to its existence, you are on your way. But you do not have to face this by yourself; we are on the path with you. Don’t be left behind; fate favors the bold. Start on this quest with us. We only have to choose to start. — Ed Anderson
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Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”™ Limiting Beliefs: “Winning the Battle for Our Dreams”
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iss Martha Johnson was the sweetest old lady you could ever hope to meet. She taught tenth grade English at my high school. Her classes were fun and she honestly cared about her students.
She made an impression on me that affected my life for almost twenty years after tenth grade. However it was most likely not the impression she would have wanted. During a review of one of my papers she made the comment "You don't write very well, do you?” I'm sure she meant that in a motivational way but somehow it made its way into my subconscious, and for years afterwards I believed that I had no writing ability. I carried that belief through college and it affected my writing of papers and reports. I dreaded research projects. It took me four attempts to get through the essay part of my college exit exam. I had to get special tutoring to pass the exam and escape college. This lack of belief in my writing ability made a big difference in my life, but eventually I overcame that belief and writing now comes easily to me. In fact, I enjoy writing now.
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The Zen “enso,” is a circle representing enlightenment. The Shinjinmei, written in the sixth century, refers to the Great Way of Zen as “A circle like vast space, lacking nothing, and with nothing in excess.”
Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”
Limiting Beliefs: Winning the battle for our Dreams
That is a text book example of a limiting belief. We are all defined by a set of beliefs concerning our own abilities and skills. We can't really help that. As we go through life we form these beliefs about ourselves. On the positive side, they keep us safe from injury. We learn we can't pick up hot objects without protective gear. We realize that not all dogs are friendly. Some of these we find by experience and some we learn from people around us. These beliefs also form a set of rules that control our behavior. Because of this they form the framework of our life – and dictate the roles we play. They make us the good friend, the dedicated employee, or even the serious student. The rules are not a bad thing if they guide us in achieving our goals – but the problems start when our rules start preventing us from making improvements in our lives. The problems are heightened when we need to change directions but can't. I'm sure that you think you would know what is stopping you from doing what you want. We are all intelligent people that are in control of our lives and minds. The problem is that our subconscious controls us far more than we would like to believe. The reason we can't change them is that for the most part we don't think about them. We see the results but don't really understand why. If we had a list of them we could look at each one rationally and decide if it's valid or not. But that's not the way your
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“Do you not believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?” —Saint Augustine of Hippo
Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”
Limiting Beliefs: Winning the battle for our Dreams
brain works. All those rules are broken up and scattered throughout our subconscious and memories. The danger is that these rules are preventing your growth and you don't even realize it. Limiting beliefs can be divided into two basic categories. They are either surface or sub surface ones. The surface beliefs are those that you can see. You roughly know what they are and would tell someone about them if they asked. These are the "We don't have enough money to go on vacation" ones. You would say this to other people and you basically believe it. These rules seem rational to you but you haven't really examined them. These are the simpler ones to deal with. It's easy to see through the vacation money belief. If you are willing to consider the rule to be false then some additional options might present themselves. Travel can be expensive. Perhaps a closer destination could be as much fun. Combining your vacation with another family member might allow sharing of the costs. If you have items you don't need anymore perhaps selling them would give you the money you need for this vacation. If your current location is a tourist mecca then maybe you could trade houses with someone else tired of their location. Get out your address book and see if anyone you know out of town would like to put you up for a few days. If you just want to escape your local routine for a few days, you have more options than you realize. Surface limitations like this
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“As we acquire more knowledge things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.” —Albert Schweitzer
Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”
Limiting Beliefs: Winning the battle for our Dreams
one can be overcome by being directly questioned. Many of them exist because you never questioned them. Once you are willing to question that limitation, you will find many ideas will present themselves. Some of these will be true and some will not be. It's easy to see through the vacation money belief. If you thought about it you could come up with a low or no money option for a vacation. You are accepting a limitation that you really don't have to. There are options that would allow you to go if you wanted to. Other surface ones are "I can't dance" or "I hate broccoli". Since you are aware of them you could take some action to resolve them if you wanted or needed to. A common component of surface limiting beliefs is that they have no or weak emotional attachments. The sub surface beliefs are not as obvious as the surface beliefs. These are the ones that you don't really see and don't realize you even have. They lurk quietly in the background and only speak out when you attempt to behave counter to their instruction. An example of this is “No one in my family ever went to college and I won't either.” These are often childish or absurd rules that most people would deny they believed. They have emotional baggage that prevents you from facing them rationally. Because of that they can be bears to get rid of. The good thing about these is that getting rid of them can make a big difference in your life.
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“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” —Charles Webster Leadbeater
Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”
Limiting Beliefs: Winning the battle for our Dreams
Almost all sub surface limiting beliefs have a strong emotional component. They often relate to fears, or family/authority figures or self esteem issues. Having your Mom tell you as a child that "Rich people are all crooks" or "We are poor but happy" can imprint you for life with money issues. Believing that to be a happy good person you have to be poor can keep you from ever attempting to improve your money situation. Would you believe this if you thought about it? Well, no one would. You have it because it is tied up with your feelings about your family. Mom wouldn't lie about this. Your subconscious believes Mom's statements and protects your faith in Mom by hiding that belief from rational review. Because you don't realize it exists, that subconscious rule keeps you poor. If you can't get rid it, you will never be happy with money. Sometimes it's a lot easier to see this problem in other people. We all have friends that never seem to succeed with money or relationships. It could be luck but most likely they have beliefs that are hindering them. Think about what they would have to believe to be in their situation. (Be careful here, they may not want to know about their limiting beliefs. Don't try to fix them. It's just an exercise for you.) Then look at yourself. People often associate with people that are very similar to themselves. You may share the same beliefs. It's just easier to see in other people. You may be surprised.
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“Jesus said: What is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Raise the stone, and you will find me there.” —The Coptic Gospel of Thomas
Ed Anderson’s “Mastering Your Quest”
Limiting Beliefs: Winning the battle for our Dreams
Once you figure out what these beliefs are you are on your way to getting past them. Examining them allows you to decide if they are true or not and what you would have to do to get past them. Luckily, there are processes you can follow to help with this. I will discuss them in Chapter two. — Ed Anderson, August 2008
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“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” —The Buddha
Upcoming Chapters
Identifying Your Limiting Beliefs Addressing Your Limiting Beliefs Understanding Empowering Beliefs Creating Empowering Beliefs
Stay current with The Quest by visiting Ed Anderson’s Mastering the Quest Blog at www.MasteringtheQuest.com