There’s a saying in the world of personal development that goes, ‘Until you make the unconscious, conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate’. So, because the unconscious accounts for over 95% of our thoughts, beliefs and actions, when these beliefs are limiting, the detrimental impact can be huge. So, what exactly are limiting beliefs? These are the thoughts or convictions that hold you back from reaching your goals and achieving your full potential. They could be beliefs like, ‘I can’t charge more because I live in a low-income area’, ‘I’m not good enough to enter that competition’, or ‘People will judge me if I make my work visible’.
When I first started out as a freelancer at just 21, I had my own limiting beliefs that I didn’t ‘look like other hairdressers’. I’m 6-foot tall and covered in tattoos, I also had the side of my head shaved and wore band tees to work. I thought that to be a successful hairdresser you had to be petite, glam, only wear tunics and have a fresh blow-dry every morning.
This belief really held me back, especially when it came to showing myself on social media. This was a particular challenge because I worked mobile at the time and, as it turns out, people want to get a feel for the strangers they’re allowing into their homes – who knew!?
Some of my clients obviously had similar thoughts too (or at least they did before we met) as I would often hear, “Oh, I wasn’t expecting someone like you!” as they opened their door. Luckily, once we got to know each other, I started to wonder if what was holding me back could actually go in my favour…
“You’ve gotta check out this tattooed woman who did my extensions!”, some clients would say when they recommended me to their friends, and I began to slowly attract a handful of alternative clients. They would tell me how they always felt like they couldn’t fit in with ‘traditional’ salons, or that they felt intimidated asking for the weird and wonderful styles they really wanted.
And that’s when it really dawned on me, so I decided to show myself online and really let my followers and clients get to know me. Business boomed quickly, and I became the go-to hairdresser for the creatives, the musicians, the tattoo artists and my fellow neurodiverse, alternative, ever-changing-hair-colour women of the North East.
So, what if you could reframe your current limiting beliefs to something that could actually help you grow? Rather than thinking, ‘no one can afford higher prices in this town’, instead try, ‘I’m going to serve the clientele who want high quality and are prepared to pay for it’. What if, instead of, ‘I’m not good enough to enter that competition’, you thought, ‘I’m proud of my work and whether I win or not, this will be a great experience and push me to highlight my achievements’?
And then, what if you consciously took small actions, every single day, to align with these new, helpful beliefs? Your business and life could look completely different in even a few short months.
