Hi,
Gordon here, and I hope all is well with you.
Lent is a Christian function, to do with forms of penitence, self denial. Many people take to 40 days of fasting, giving up luxury items – in this post I’m going to give you something you can give up for Lent, which works whether you are a Christian or not…
It’s self doubt.
Limiting beliefs, putting yourself down, call it what you will, it’s something that stops untold numbers of people from achieving amazing things, from shaping their life in the way they want it.
It might be family pressure, it might be peer pressure, it might be a poor education on self esteem, but it make me cringe when I hear people say ‘I can’t do that’, because in most cases you can tell they are just saying it, with no justification.
If you ask ‘why can’t you do it?’ the answer that often comes back is this – ‘because.’
Hmm…
Because what, exactly? That’s a question that really gets people stumped, as they can’t actually follow up the ‘because’ with any kind of reason, it’s just something they say, a knee jerk reaction to try and stop any self questioning.
Well, here’s the thing – maybe you *need* to question yourself!
Instead of telling yourself you can’t, ask yourself why you can’t, or even better tell yourself the reasons why you can!
Lent involves giving something up for 40 days, so for 40 days, how about giving up that self doubt? Give up telling yourself you can’t do something before you’ve tried, and go out and try it!
If you need to learn something, go out and learn it. If you make mistakes, make corrections and go again. Don’t worry about the specific dates for Lent, you may be reading this article at any time. No, the important thing is to commit to doing this for 40 days.
Self doubt is comfortable, that’s why people revert to it so easily, but the next time you hear yourself putting yourself down, stop and remind yourself ‘hang on, I’m giving that up for 40 days!’
Actually have a conversation with yourself, break out of that comfort zone. Challenge yourself to actually prove whether you can do something, rather than let self doubt stop you even trying.
It will be difficult at times, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up, but stick with it. It’s surprising just how quickly some habits can be changed, and at the end of 40 days you will have gone a long way to replacing a negative mindset with a positive one, and life might just look *totally* different!
Let me know what you think, I love feedback, and if you agree with me, please share, like, tweet etc thanks!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. You won’t be surprised to hear this is exactly the kind of idea I talk about my book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’ which I was thrilled to have described as ‘motivational magic!’
