BREAK FREE From Your Limiting Beliefs | Mindshift 1

How many times has someone doubted you or said you weren't capable or even good enough? Next question here, how many times did you believe them? That's the most important thing. And it's shocking to think about how often someone in our life, it could be a parent, a coach, a teacher, a friend, says something to us and we believe them, even if it's false.

And we allow that single word or several words to impact our entire future and limit Every part of our lives. And so what I really want to get into today is, and over the next few weeks, is digging into how to create a mind shift to live a radically better life. You know, this is something I cover in my new book, Think This, Not That. And by the way, you can get a copy if you go to joshaxe.com.

That's joshaxe.com and follow along. Also, if you get the book this week, you're going to get— my free Mindset Masterclass, which is worth a few hundred dollars, and a 12-week workbook to follow along in the coming episodes and in the book where you can do the exercises to help you break free of limiting beliefs and live your best life possible.

So today I'm gonna be focusing specifically on how to rewrite the limiting beliefs that are holding you back. And here's what I wanna tell you. You may just be one limiting belief away from experiencing a breakthrough In your life.

According to the National Science Foundation, our brains can produce as many as 50,000 thoughts per day, and 95% of these thoughts are on repeat via our subconscious mind. And so there are stories and beliefs and things that happen to you when you're a child that oftentimes are continually being voiced in our brains that dictate almost every action during The day.

And the reality is this, beliefs are incredibly powerful. It may be the single greatest determining factor of what your life will look like. Here's what Tony Robbins says. He says, beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. We know the Bible shares as well that life and death are in the power of the tongue. And basically your beliefs are what you're going to speak out.

And so the reality is our beliefs are powerful, and you need to make sure that you become aware of what your limiting beliefs are. Are if you're going to live a better future. And this matters because, again, a belief, whether it be true or false, will change the outcome of your life. And you can unlock the door to becoming the person you were born to be only if you have the right beliefs.

And this is something I discovered in my life as well. And I'm going to share something incredibly personal today that really impacted who I was and who I've become in life. And then I want to go through how you can unlock The greatest version of you as well. So here's the big problem. Beliefs come from mainly when we were kids, okay? Our upbringing, our experiences, our relationships.

Also, the culture and media play a pretty big role for most people in what we believe about ourselves and the world and others. And negative beliefs can become the soundtrack of your life and will literally restrict your growth. It's called the Law of the Lid. Basically, When you have a limiting belief, you can't grow past it.

And so no matter how hard you try and you're struggling, let me give you, have you ever been in a situation in life where you really wanted to have a great relationship with somebody, but it's like no matter what you did, you couldn't feel connected to them? It could be your spouse, even could be someone you're dating, could be a child, could be a friend. That, that's an example of that.

Or maybe it's business and you feel like no matter what you do in business, you're on a treadmill. You just can't seem to break free. You can't seem to go forward. Listen, it's so much less about what you do. It's so much more about what you believe that actually restricts your growth. And if you have a limiting belief, there's no room for transformation or growth.

And here's the reality, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right for the most part with most things in life. And so your, your level of thinking and your beliefs are one of the most powerful things that you can change in order to change your trajectory And so here's how this worked for me when I was a kid.

So I remember going into freshman English class, so Freshman 101 in high school, and I had the teacher ask me about halfway through the year to stay after class. And her name was Ms. Noble. And I stayed after class and she said to me, she said, Josh, what do you want to do after high school? And I said, I, I really wanna be a doctor. And she literally laughed out loud.

She said, Josh, she said, listen, my daughter barely got into medical school. She had a 3.8 GPA. Wow. And almost didn't get into Ohio State Med School. And she said, listen, your GPA right now is pitiful. She said, you got an F on this paper. That's why she wanted me to stay after. She laid this on my, on my, on the desk for me to take. And she said, you got an F on your paper.

You've got a D- in this class. And she said, listen, if you don't try harder, you're not even gonna graduate high school. And I walked outta the class and it's interesting what you take away as a kid. Oftentimes people say things and. And it's not necessarily even what they meant. Now, I do think she meant this, but here's what I walked away with.

I walked away out of that class and the soundtrack that started running through my head, or the belief was, I'm not smart. That's what I believed. I thought, I am not smart. This teacher, I'm not getting good grades. That means if you got a C or lower, you're not smart. If you got a B, you're average. You got an A, you're smart. And so I was getting most all Cs or Ds.

Um, and so for me, I thought, I'm not smart. Now here's the other thing. 2 Weeks later, my mom brings me in to see a doctor, and I go in and see this doctor. And first off, they're talking about me like I'm not in the room, or this doctor is. And he said, your son has ADHD and he's gonna really struggle with learning.

And so while I was sitting there, And then he prescribes a medication, uh, called— at the time I think it was Ritalin. And then later on I got a, a Adderall, uh, prescription. But I got diagnosed with medication, and now I never took it, uh, because my mom didn't want me— put me on medications then.

Now later on I did take it for— by the way, this is a whole nother story— I did take ADHD medication for about a week, and I got off immediately because I felt like it was really changing my personality, and, and I didn't want that. But going back to this, I, here's what I took away from this.

I thought, well, not only am I not smart, I'm like, I'm medically not smart after getting a medical diagnosis of ADHD. So throughout high school, I really, my, my, I, I really stopped trying. I had so much self-doubt that the only reason I even graduated high school, I graduated, graduated with a C- GPA, like a 2.28 or something, just very low GPA.

And the only reason I graduated was I knew if I didn't, my dad would be irate. So literally my entire purpose and motivation for graduating high school Wasn't because I wanted to go and change the world anymore. It was because I didn't want my dad to, to be, be, be too angry at me.

And, and, and, and think about what happened just by one person saying one negative thing to me, or a couple experiences. I believe because this teacher said this, I wasn't smart and my potential limited, and my thoughts of becoming a doctor just went out, just went out the window. I, I, I honestly stopped thinking about it.

Like I had these dreams and vision in life that when my mom had cancer, and was going through chemotherapy and had a mastectomy and going through this trauma in life, my heart broke for my mom. And I said to myself as a kid, 2 things. One, I wanna help people prevent this sort of suffering. And number 2, I said, there's gotta be a better way of helping people over beat cancer.

So those are the 2 things I felt. And then I went into this one meeting with this person and my dreams, my purpose, all those things were shattered. And so I just, I just, I just went through high school without even thinking about it again. Then I got to college and here's what happened. I, well, so, so here's the thing. I applied to a lot of colleges.

I got denied by most because my GPA was so bad. Um, but I did a lot of extracurriculars and things like that, that, that, you know, looked good. And so one college I really wanted to get into, they sent me a letter back and they said, they said, well, you're not in.

But they said this, they said, if you come to summer school and take several courses and you average above a 3.0 GPA, then we'll let you in. And I thought to myself, well, listen, I don't want to be the kid that doesn't go off to college, that stays home and lives with his parents. I thought, I want to go and I'm going to really try this time.

And so first class I had to take in summer school was English 101. So I went to, I went and took English 101. This was at the University of Kentucky. I went and took English 101, and one of the first assignments was to write a paper. And I wrote a paper and I thought, I'm really gonna try and write a great paper. I spent a lot of time on it, went and turned it in.

And then a few days later, the teacher at the end of class said, hey Josh, can I talk to you for a minute? And my initial reaction was, oh no, my stomach just dropped. 'Cause I thought, this is, this is gonna be the same thing. You know, you didn't do well. And you know, this thing of, you know, maybe, maybe you're not cut out for this.

And so I stay after, and her name was Ms. Williams, and she asked me, This is almost like déjà vu. She said, Josh, you know, what's your major? And I said, well, I haven't chosen a major. I said, I don't really know. And she said, you know, she said, I just want you to consider something. She said, I think you should consider being an English major or journalism or do something with writing.

And I said, okay, why? And she said, well, I just wanna let you know you got the highest grade in the entire class. You got an A on this paper. And I really think you could be a talented writer and you have a gift for this. And I said, okay. And I walked outta the classroom. And for me at that time, it was, it, it totally rewrote the narrative in my mind.

In fact, one of the things that I would correlate this with, it was almost like I had an organ transplant. It was a memory transplant. I had this memory of growing up where, where I wasn't smart from this one teacher, and I was able to take that one thing someone said and replace it with something else to where not, not only am I not smart, I, I replaced the I'm not smart with.

I can be an incredible writer. I can do this if I just apply myself and try. And, and if you think about this, it's a very similar thing to an organ transplant. You know, it's a mindset transplant to where if you have a sick heart or liver today, you can have someone else donate to you a new heart or a new liver or a new organ, a new kidney, and it can save and transform your life.

And I want to say those words from that teacher were almost that identical thing for me to where I didn't believe in myself. I didn't believe I could. I wasn't smart. And now I was smart. I was capable. I could go do it. And from then on in college, all it took for me was that one thing, replacing that one belief. And I then went on, averaged above a 3.0 in college.

When I went to Johns Hopkins University, I graduated a top 10 institution with a 3.9 GPA. Wow. And then went on to build a $100 million company, helps transform the health of tens of thousands, if not millions of people, was able to write 7 books, hit the Inc. 5000 list twice, and, and, and overall just live a great life. And by the way, I don't share any of those things to boast.

I share it because of this. If I would've held onto that one single limiting belief, I wouldn't have accomplished, accomplished any of that. I wouldn't have become a doctor. I wouldn't have built a successful business. I probably wouldn't have even have tried. But because I was able to rewrite that limiting belief and create a new empowering belief, my entire life changed.

And one question I have for you, and I wanna really then get into, here's how to change your limiting beliefs and identify them. But a question I have for you is, is there a limiting belief holding you back from fulfilling your dreams in life? Is there a limiting belief you have that's keeping you from having a great relationship?

Is there a limiting belief that's keeping you from starting the business, writing the book you've dreamed about, having a, having a, uh, investing in your kids in some way, whatever it might be, or, or, or experiencing a health breakthrough? You might just be one single limiting belief away from absolutely radically changing your life.

And so I want you to think about that as I go through the rest of that today. What is that limiting belief for you? And We need to make sure that we break free of that. And I'm excited to help you do that. And remember, I wanna, I wanna mention this, and I, then I've got a story here on Chris Pratt that's gonna blow your mind.

But I wanna encourage you, uh, in my book, Think This, Not That, that's where I really dive into this of how to break free of limiting beliefs. And so I'm just scratching the surface here in this podcast, but you can get the book. Uh, it's, it's in bookstores nationwide. It, it's, it's going to be, uh, amazon.com.

You can go to joshaxe.com, just my name, and get loads and loads of free, a masterclass that, that we were gonna sell for $500. We're gonna give you for free if you, if you just get the book. And also the workbook we're gonna give you for free as well. But you can go to joshaxe.com and get this. Now, this, this, by the way, this story just gives me goosebumps even thinking about this.

So listen to this. Chris Pratt almost lost his biggest role in a movie because of one single limiting belief. So his agent called him up and he said, Chris, I want you to go and do a tryout for a Marvel film called Guardians of the Galaxy. And here's the thing, Pratt refused to go audition. He wouldn't go for weeks. He said, I'm, I'm not gonna go to that audition. Here's the reason why.

He didn't think he possessed any superhero-like qualities. He, he, he told his agent, he said, listen, I'm not the superhero type. Nobody's gonna see me as a superhero. In fact, at the time he was starring as this sort of funny, out-of-shape character in a TV show maybe you've seen called Parks and Recreation, where he weighed nearly 300 pounds.

And Pratt said, this is sort of a, a close to a quote. He said, he said, I didn't want to go embarrass myself like when I did this audition for G.I. Joe a couple years previously. He said, halfway through, I saw the director's eyes glaze over cuz I was so outta shape. Now, Pratt's agent finally convinced him to go audition for Guardians of the Galaxy. And, and here's the other crazy thing.

Pratt and direct— so, so, so the other thing is not only had Pratt had a limiting belief about himself, the director before he actually did the audition, James Gunn, said like, I don't want to, I don't want Chris Pratt to audition because he had seen Parks and Rec and thought, this guy's outta shape, he's not healthy. And, and so finally though, the agent convinced both of them for him to go.

Well, Pratt went in and they immediately hit it off, Pratt and James Gunn, and Gunn recognized the potential in Pratt. And, and he said this though, he said, you've gotta get in shape. So Pradhan said, if you gimme the role, I'll get in shape. Pratt committed to getting in shape.

He lost 60 pounds in 6 months and claims his fitness and health journey also made him feel like an absolute super, super superhero. And the film, you probably know this, was an absolute stunning success, one of the most successful Marvel films today.

And then here's the thing, since overcoming this single limiting belief about him not being the superhero type and not being able to look like a Superhero, Pratt's career has skyrocketed to where, I mean, think about this, the amount of roles this Pratt has, you know, starred in.

And here's the deal, not only has he played a superhero, he's played a dinosaur trainer, a Navy SEAL, and, you know, an intergalactic warrior. And so he is absolutely now known as like the superhero type. And, and going back to this for yourself, I want you to think about this. What is that limiting belief that you have that's keeping you from something great in life?

If Pratt would've held onto this one limiting belief, he wouldn't have starred in his most iconic roles in Guardians of the Galaxy, in Jurassic World, in that show where he plays the Navy SEAL. He wouldn't have done any of those. You know, another example of this is Jim Kwik, who believed he literally had a broken brain. In fact, kids at school said, oh, he's the kid with the broken brain.

Now he is the number one brain performance podcast and can literally memorize 1,000 digit number forwards and backwards. And there are examples of so many people who have had to overcome these limiting beliefs in their life. Now, here's the reality.

Beliefs can be positive or negative, but they almost always pertain to 3 areas of life: beliefs about yourself, beliefs about other people, and beliefs about the world. Here's some examples of beliefs about yourself, and first limiting, and then maybe some empowering. So first is, I'm not smart enough, or I don't deserve to fall in love.

By the way, if you're feeling a lot of beliefs about shame and guilt constantly, that's an identity issue, which is also connected to false beliefs about self and really who you are meant and called to be. And here's some positive ones. I'm honest and trustworthy. I have massive potential. I'm a great writer. I'm a great artist. I can operate with integrity.

So you wanna really look at and identify what are those false beliefs about yourself out there. You know, one thing a lot of people feel is, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to be loved. And, and so really tapping into worthiness, which is completely connected to identity as well.

And by the way, your identity, which I'm gonna get into in one of these next episodes, so if you're not subscribed, make sure to subscribe to the podcast, cuz I think it's gonna be maybe the most powerful episode. But these identity, your identity about yourself is part of what feeds your beliefs about yourself. But you really wanna identify what are those limiting beliefs about yourself.

Here's one, I'm not pretty. Or here's another one. Sometimes doctors speak into the life of people. Hey, you're gonna have to be on this drug for the rest of your life. You have Lyme disease, you have back pain, you have hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's or autoimmune disease, and you believe it can't be reversed. I have type 2 diabetes. Here's the thing I can tell you. It can be reversed.

I've helped tens of thousands of people reverse autoimmune disease and diabetes and heart disease and a number of conditions. So, I know they can be.

So, let me be the person, the Mrs. Williams in your life that speaks in and says, you can be smart, you can increase your intelligence, you can reverse that disease, you can live your potential, you can operate with great character, but you've got to believe the right things about yourself. And so, I want you to take time.

By the way, if you go to JoshAxe.com, get the— And get the book, then I'll encourage you in the workbook to do the exercise and write down, and whether you have the workbook or not, I think it'd benefit you to go through all the exercise. But whether you do or don't have the full workbook, at least write down for yourself what are those limiting beliefs you have about yourself.

You want to write those down and become aware of those first. And I'm going to go through the full exercise here in a minute. Now, the other type of limiting beliefs we tend to have, or beliefs, are around others. For instance, well, people are out to get me. Or here's things, people don't really change. They kind of always stay the same. There's a really funny scene.

I remember watching this movie with my wife. This was years ago, and I think it was called Bridesmaids. And they have this argument, the two, like, people change. No, they don't. And they're really talking these beliefs about do people change? And so I think there are definitely beliefs that people are inherently evil. Or all people are inherently good.

I mean, these sort of things that we believe about other people really impact the, our, our limiting or unlimiting beliefs about our life. Like, I'll give you an example for myself. I believe that people have incredible capacity for good. They, they, they were created in the image of God. Okay?

So I believe they're really created for good, but we've, they've all been stained with sin, including myself. We've all been stained with the sin. So really almost everything we do is tainted with Unpure motives. And, and, and, and so there's a way to sort of wash ourselves clean and become good. So I have this belief, it's not people are bad or people are good.

I believe that they were created to be good but are stained with bad. And my goal is to help, help them get to that clean and pure state where they're operating in the highest level of intention, where in character. So I just want to give you an example there of what I believe is sort of the right belief with an example there. But your beliefs about people are very, very important.

And here's another one. You know, there are people today that don't believe that humans have much worth. In fact, people will say humans are like viruses. If you believe that humans are like viruses and we need to decrease the human population— by the way, there are a lot of people who believe that.

A lot of people that are part of sort of, you know, this, as somebody would say, like part of the New World Order, the world order trying to, you know, shape humanity. But there's other people. If you think about someone like Mother Teresa, what did she believe? That humans have an incredible value. I mean, incredible value and worth, and every human life is worth loving and saving.

And so your beliefs about other people dictate so much of your life and how you treat people. If you believe people are a virus versus if you believe people are divine in nature and have massive value, That is really gonna change the way that you treat people. And there's a lot of people in organizations today, if you have a bad boss, here's probably what they believe.

You don't have much value in life. And by the way, they probably partly believe that goes back to self, cuz they don't believe they have much value. So they believe they're unworthy and they don't have value. They don't believe you're worthy and valued, so they're not gonna treat you right.

Versus if you have a boss that speaks life into you as an encourager and, and, and really treats you with great honor and respect. They value you as a human being. And what's probably happened at some point in their life, someone said to them, or they were taught that they didn't have value and others don't have value.

And they were taught that at 3 years old, 5, 7 years old, and they're still living with that belief today. Versus, you know, parents teaching their kids, everybody's divine, everybody has incre— incredible value. Everybody from somebody that's homeless to somebody that's been murdered, someone else, that person's life has value. Right?

And so, so many of these things happen when we're kids and we continue to live out with those beliefs today unless we change them. Here's another example around our beliefs around the world. The world isn't safe. The system is rigged against me. What goes around comes around. Here's another good one. Love wins, right? God always wins, something like that.

And so really, what is your belief around the world? If you believe that, and listen, it's easy to go down this this path of everyone is trying to get you, it's not safe, right? And so, and I remember, by the way, when I was a kid, I grew up in a neighborhood where kids played in the street all day.

I mean, we just, you know, once we got out of school, we ran around until, you know, my mom said, when the sun, you know, when the sun sets, that's when you come home. That was dinner time. And, and my mom believed the world was safe.

Now, I'm not saying it's not more dangerous now, but I am saying that if you believe that you need to have a, you know, your kids need to be protected with you know, these plastic walls and they can never leave, that's actually going to limit their life. So you want to make sure you have the right belief about, uh, about the world, that there's evil but there's also good.

And how do you expose them to more good? And so you want to have these right beliefs about the world. You know, I want to give you examples here, uh, and even some biblical parallels and about culture. You know, cancel culture is about— it's a belief that people can't change and people aren't redeemable. Think about that. Cancel culture.

If you make— their belief is if you make one single mistake in your life, you should be canceled forever. There are a lot of people in the media that believe that, especially in certain political circles, in certain groups.

I'm not making this political, but I am saying there are groups, especially celebrity culture today, the people that think they're better than you, that actually believe If you make one mistake, you should be canceled for the rest of your career. But you know what's so crazy? It's the exact opposite of what you would read about in something like the Judeo-Christian faith.

So in even certain other faiths that would believe different about this. Here's what a biblical parallel would be. People were created inherently good, stained by— made in the image of God, but stained by sin.

And here's the thing that's so amazing about when you know you're believing the right thing is believing the right thing will lead to the best outcome for you, for the people around you, for everybody. So here's the biblical belief. Think about this. King David basically was a conspirator in a murder and murdering Bathsheba's wife and then committed adultery by sleeping with his wife.

So And yet God said, this is a man after my own heart, and he loved him. I mean, you think about Solomon who slept with so many women. You think about Peter who denied Jesus. You think about so many people in the biblical stories who lived lives, again, of murderers, of prostitutes, of people who committed just heinous crimes. And then God said, You're redeemable.

You know the story of the prodigal son? You go out there, you take your entire inheritance, half of what your parents own, and blow it all on gambling and sex and drugs. And you come back and God says, you know what? I still love you. You're my child. And welcomes you with open arms.

So when you see what most culture does today, where you're canceled with one single mistake, which is what God says, which is you are redeemable, You are, you know, I'm giving you total grace and love. And so I just, let me ask you this. What sort of, what do you think is a better, what, what is a better, more empowering belief? Cancel culture or grace and redemption?

And so it's important that you have the right beliefs and you also don't let the media and other people teach you limiting beliefs that then start to become part of your own narrative. And by the way, you never wanna fight evil with evil. You wanna fight evil with good. Just because somebody cancels you doesn't mean you should try and cancel everybody else.

Just because somebody cancels somebody that you like in the media doesn't mean you should go and try and cancel them. You want to operate with the, with the highest level of thinking when it comes to your beliefs. Here are some key takeaways I want to share with you. You know, think this. I can because, not that I can't because.

Okay, so, so you want to think about— and here, here's another— I, I want to share with you, this is again something very personal for me. I have people ask me a lot right now how I'm doing, and many of you know that I had a really serious health issue that happened from a medical mistake that I never thought could happen when I was just getting a natural procedure of stem cells.

And then I didn't walk for a whole year. And, and somebody, you know, I, I was talking to someone recently and they said, you know what, when you have back problems or when you have a health issue, it never goes away. That's what they had said. By the way, this is a family member, not, not a— just an extended family member. And I thought, I don't believe that. I'm not going to accept that belief.

Um, and, and when I have people ask me, hey, are you, you know, how's your back? How are you? I said, I'm not at 100% yet, but I will be. I'm not at 100% yet, but I will be. Right? Not that, well, I just, I'm probably never gonna be 100% again. Right? What the words you speak start to affect your brain in something called neuroplasticity.

When you believe the right things, your brain and nervous system start to rewire and create new pathways in order to make it a reality, in order to heal. Your thyroid or your brain or your gut issue or whatever you have. And it also does this with beliefs about other things in life.

If you believe that you're eventually going to be a doctor, even subconsciously, remember, 95% of your thoughts and beliefs are subconscious. And without you even thinking about it, you will start moving towards doing things if you believe you can and you will. You'll start moving towards those, making those things a reality. Now, people talk about things like manifestation.

I'm not talking about manifestation. Now, I do believe there's, you know, a lot of things are energy. In fact, our body works on a form of electricity or ATP, cellular energy and what's produced. So, I do believe that energy is important. When you walk in a room and you feel somebody's really negative or somebody has sort of unhealthy or sort of a negative, Um, feelings toward you, right?

You can feel that in the room. You feel people's emotions in a way, sort of the energy there. So I do believe there's sort of an energetic component of certain things, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm saying your brain actually starts to rewire things in your own body and, and subconscious starts to move forward for things to happen in your life. And here's what I wanna say to you.

Maybe your life is not what you once dreamed it would be. And I think this is a lot of people in life. You might think to yourself, you know what, I really thought I would have this job, I would be at this place in my career by now, and I'm Or I really thought I was gonna marry somebody and our, our marriage would just be thriving.

Or, or, or, or maybe you thought again, you'd start that business or that thing would happen. It just never happened. You know, and listen, even though you've made mistakes, uh, or, or somebody's made, did something awful to you and that happened to you in the past, here's the reality. You are not your past. You are not that event that happened to you. Okay?

Your identity is not something that happened to you. Your identity should be anchored in the divine. Your identity should be anchored in the uniqueness of who you are. You have gifts, you have talents, you have things that no one else of 7+ billion people on the planet, that no one else has what you have. And you've gotta be able to identify and know that deep in your heart.

But here's the reality. If you are holding onto limiting beliefs, it will keep you from ever moving forward. In that way. You know, there's a quote by Joe Dispenza, and here's what he says: becoming the person you aspire to be requires that you stop being that old self. So you need to stop being your old self, that old person, those old beliefs. You gotta move forward and break free of those.

Step 1 in doing that is identifying your limiting beliefs. If you're unsure of whether a limiting belief carries weight, Consider the cost if you consider to believe it. Let me give you an example. Let's think about if I believe for myself my back would never heal. Okay, well, the cost there is I'm probably not going to do certain things to actually try and help it to heal.

And I also know from the placebo effect, my brain isn't gonna do certain things. Here, here's the reality. Think about it. If I were to tell you this, if I, and this is true by the way, if I have a patient that came into me. And, and, and I told them, you, you, you, they came in with type 2 diabetes and I told them, listen, it's irreversible.

You're gonna have to be on this medication the rest of your life. What are their chances they're going to reverse type 2 diabetes? I can tell you, cuz I've experienced this, it's very close to 0%. But if I have a patient come into me with type 2 diabetes and I tell them, no, you can reverse type 2 diabetes. In fact, I've seen it happen in 30 days.

We can get your A1C levels completely normalized, your blood glucose, all of it completely normal. And, and then I, and then I tell them, here's the supplements you need to take, here's the diet plan, here's some exercise, and then go and do it. And they do it. 90+% Of time they will reverse their type 2 diabetes.

So, so their beliefs about even what I tell them or what they believe can happen, they could have about a 0% success rate to an over 90% success rate. Based on their beliefs. And this is true for everything in your life. Almost everything in your life, this is true. So you need to make sure you're believing the right thing.

Here is something called the ABCDE model that was created by a Columbia psychologist. So here is how you overcome limiting beliefs. A, activate the event or memory. What triggered the limiting belief? For me, as I mentioned, Mrs. Noble said to me, You got a terrible grade on this paper. You'll be lucky if you graduate high school. So I believed I wasn't smart. So go and reactivate the memory.

When did this false belief start? Okay? And become aware of it. So it's activating an awareness. So what is the belief? When did it start? Number 2, be very clear about what the limiting belief is. Okay? So it's, I'm not smart, or I'm not capable, or I can't reverse this health issue. But be very specific. So number 1 is activating an awareness. Number 2 is belief. So A, B, C is consequences.

What will result from continuing to believe this? So what is C for you? Again, for me, think about this. If I continued to believe that I wasn't smart, I wouldn't have become a doctor. I wouldn't have written a book. I wouldn't have started a supplement company. I wouldn't have done any of that.

So what are the consequences if you continue to believe whatever thing, like money doesn't grow on trees, or there's only a small piece of the pie, so you have to fight everybody for it, or believing you're not worthy or beautiful? What are the consequences of you believing that? And write down a lot of things.

What are all the different things about, you know, you, you won't try, you won't show up, you won't whatever. D is actually called disputation. This is where you dispute. So D is dispute. How can you dispute the limiting belief and take a more rational approach?

You know, Jamie Kern Lima shared this in my interview with her, and Jamie said that she went into a, uh, basically she had this belief at one point that maybe she wasn't beautiful or worthy enough to start a skincare company because somebody once told her, hey, listen, you're, you're, you're not the ideal person to sort of, uh, you know, you're not that supermodel type that somebody would see on TV.

And so she, she had this limiting belief around, you know, if about, about a skincare company, but she overcame that and realized that she was beautiful, externally beautiful, internally beautiful. She had something that so many women believe cuz she had psoriasis, she had rosacea and, and skin issues and a lot of redness of skin.

So she created a skincare company to help with that physical blemish and appearance she had on her skin. And, and so she was able to dispute that and say, that's not true. I'm beautiful. I have an incredible husband, men pursuing me. I have this, I have this, I have this. And so she disputed that. So A, B, C, D, and then E is the effects. Okay?

Write down E. The limiting belief is now turned into a new rational belief. What should you believe? Okay? What is the healthy belief that's gonna lead to a positive outcome? I am beautiful. I am smart. I am capable. People are inherently good and evil, but I can help bring out the good in them, right? So write down what should you believe?

And by the way, here's how you know what you should believe is what will lead to the most heavenly world, the best outcome possible. Like, I always tie this into purpose. I believe my purpose is to love God, love people, and make earth a heavenly place. If everyone's needs were supplied and this entire world looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings, okay? And it was this heavenly-like place.

Um, you know, what belief would best help make that a reality? You know, so, so again, thinking about, okay, is the world— is it best to believe that people are a virus, or is it best to believe that every single person you encounter, no matter what they've done in life, where they're at in life, that's a divine being in front of you that has incredible and even eternal value?

If you believe that versus everyone, you would treat them like you were meeting the Pope or a king or Jesus, or, or, or maybe there, there's a celebrity or someone in your life that you would admire so much and that you love. How would you treat them? Well, treat everybody that way, cuz everybody has the same worth and value. So that's the right belief that will lead to the best world.

So that's how you know and determine what the right belief is, or looking at the most virtuous person you know, like a Mother Teresa or, A, uh, you know, Billy Graham or someone like that. What did they believe? And then trying to adopt that same belief will tend to help lead you to the correct, uh, correct believing. A few other steps in science, in psychology, I wanna share with you.

There's a type of therapy called schema therapy, and it's in— it's, it's deeply ingrained ideas about our self-image, which are oftentimes responsible for where our limiting beliefs come from. And again, our self-image. Is really your identity. Okay? How do you view yourself in this world? So schema therapy helps to revise these deeply held schemas, and there's a few techniques for doing this.

One of these is empathetic confrontation, and another one is called limited reparenting. Now, with empathetic confrontation, I wanna say this, that here's something that, that you need to do that I think's valuable. Sometimes we need to step outside of ourself. It's called self-distancing. Mm-hmm. Step outside and look at ourselves like someone we were caring for. Okay?

For instance, my, if my daughter said something to me like, I don't feel beautiful, I would not let her believe that for a second. Or if she would tell me she's not smart, I would grab ahold of my daughter and be like, listen, you have, you know what? You are smart. You are gifted. You were made in the image of God. Like, I would grab ahold of her and re-level her thinking.

You need to do the same thing with yourself. You need to have empathy for yourself and compassion and rush to help yourself. And, and when you're thinking or beating yourself up, by the way, a quick nother note on science here.

When you study Chinese medicine or German new medicine, or a lot of these new forms of medicine that really are looking at sort of the mind-body connection, you'll find one of the biggest causes of autoimmune disease today is beating yourself up with your words. If you're saying to yourself, you're not smart.

You know, you're not good enough, what you shouldn't have done that, and you're beating yourself up, that's linked to autoimmune disease. And so you need to instead be kind to yourself, have empathy, but treat yourself like someone you were caring for, like your child that you want to help grow to the highest level possible.

So that's one technique, is that remember, step outside of yourself when this— when these things are happening, when you have these beliefs, and say, no, this is what you should believe. The second technique is this, and I want to give my, my recommendation on this, but it's called limited reparenting.

Now, in psychology, what tends to happen is people will work— now, this started off, by the way, I believe in the 1970s, where certain people started living with a counselor, had a live-in counselor that sort of reparenting, acted like their parents, because oftentimes parents, or if they didn't have parents there at all, taught their kids the wrong things and wrong beliefs.

And so one psychologist said, I'm going to go and live with patients and sort of reparent them and say, no, you shouldn't should think this. No, you shouldn't do this. Here's what you should believe, and help retrain their brain. Now, you can do this with a counselor today, get reparenting. Some counselors will do this, not many. It's more of a niche, but limited reparenting.

Another way of doing this is getting good mentors and coaches and father and mother-like figures in your life. I've done this, for example, in business, having people in my life like Michael Hyatt and Jordan Rubin and even Donald Miller. I've met a couple years ago and these sort of people that really helped me think differently about business.

I did this with doctors and health, Dr. Ben Lerner, Greg Lohmann, and other doctors that I started learning from. I did this even spiritually, had spiritual parenting and with People I've listened to over the years, everyone from, you know, uh, Craig Groeschel to Ed Silvoso, someone who really personally spoke into my life, and others, leadership gurus like John Maxwell.

So my point is you can get mentored virtually in a way by continually reading and learning, but also in-person mentorship is a form of reparenting. So that's another technique to help you with really getting in touch with humans. And sometimes it's getting a coach in business.

Those sort of, all of those things can help, or, or getting involved at church or the synagogue in connecting with those great mother and father-like figures that can start to speak into your life and you share with them and they sort of counsel you for free via mentorship and discipleship. I want to touch on something else here. Again, create unlimiting beliefs. I really want you to do this.

I went through the ABCDE model, but I want you to write down what are your top 3 limiting beliefs that you have in life right now? Okay. What are they? And here's what I try and do. For instance, I believe I'm not smart, I'm not capable, or I feel like, oh, business is so hard, it's a grind. I'm then going to go and look up what do other people believe? What does Ed Mylett say?

What does Patrick Bet-David say? What does John Maxwell say? I'm going to go and write down the people that I know are thriving in the area and see what they believe. And that's one way to help replace your limiting beliefs is what are the people who believe what you wanna believe? What do they believe about the thing? And start reinforcing and strengthening those beliefs.

Now listen, sometimes replacing a limiting belief doesn't happen immediately. Now for me, there was a moment where I felt like it got 50% better, and then it was like gradually, you know, there was one set of breakthrough and then there was over time where I believed, well, I am really smart and capable. But so, so for you, that's likely how this will happen.

You'll do the exercises that I have in my book, Think This, Not That. You'll do what I just shared on the podcast here, or go through, I, I, I recommend go to joshaxe.com, get the workbook there if you get the book, and, and, and spend time going through that. And what you'll probably experience is about a 50% breakthrough. Okay? Or a 25% or a 90% breakthrough.

And then you want to continue to go and refor— re, re— restrengthen or strengthen this new belief that you know you should have. And the way that I did that was I said, okay, I did— I wrote one good paper. I'm gonna write another good one. I'm gonna write some good articles. I'm gonna write a book. And I'm like, I am a, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a great writer.

Here's the other thing, by the way. One thing that could also really affect your beliefs in a negative way, if you're comparing yourself to someone else who, for instance, if I started comparing myself to I don't know, you know, John Grisham or, or, you know, Stephen King or John Maxwell or one of these writers that's an epic writer when I was 21 years old, that's not a very good idea.

They're so far ahead of me. But if I'm also saying, you know what, I have a— I'm talented as a writer and I can grow as a writer, and look how much better I am now than I was 2 years ago, that's the way that you wanna judge yourself in that way, by the way, is based on your growth, not where you're at. You wanna judge yourself based on your growth.

But again, you need to create these new unlimited beliefs for yourself. So here's what you're gonna do. Write it down what your new belief is. Put it up where you are gonna see it regularly and say it out loud. I have the potential to be an incredible writer. I am, I am a gifted writer, or whatever it is for you. I am beautiful. I, I can build a $10 million business, whatever it is.

Again, understand it's a progression, not a destination. And then go and start to reinforce that by getting micro wins and reading and growing in that area you want to grow in. Okay? And tie pain and pleasure to this. I mean, think about this.

If you believe, for instance, myself, if I believe that my health is limited and I'm going to have back issues the rest of my life, I need to— I realize that that's pain. I don't want to have that. And so I want to tie a lot of pleasure to this as well, knowing that Hey, if I am a great writer, or if I do heal this issue, that it's gonna bring great pleasure to my life.

So you wanna use pain and pleasure for your own purposes. So again, take action. Remember this, you are not the things you say you will do, by the way. You are what you actually do. Here, remember this, you're not what you say you'll do. You, you are what you actually do. So beliefs are more than feelings. Or even your deepest convictions, they align with your behavior. They demand action.

So right now, if you're listening to this podcast and you're saying to yourself, you know what? I believe Dr. Axe. Like, I know that I have a limiting belief that is holding me back in life, or I have 3 limiting beliefs and I know I've gotta break through, through those. You don't truly believe that unless you take action.

What I shared, if you really believe that this could literally radically alter your life, You'll take some moments, you'll do the exercise, or even again, I want to encourage you, buy the book. Go right now on amazon.com or to your local bookstore and buy Think This, Not That, or buy it on joshaxe.com so you can get all the free gifts and downloads there as well.

But I want to encourage you to do that. Again, I want to encourage you, go, you actually preorder the book, comes out very soon, but you can order it right now going to joshaxe.com. And if you do, You're also going to get the Mindset Masterclass for free. You'll get that today and the 12-week workbook. You'll get those for free.

We're also going to give you some other updates and bonuses for free that I haven't even shared with you yet here for the next few weeks. But to close out, I want to say this. Remember, you may just be one single limiting belief away from radically changing your life. Remember the story about Chris Pratt? Yeah.

Would've continued to have that limiting belief about himself, he wouldn't have starred in one of the greatest movie franchises of all time. If I would've continued to believe I wasn't smart, I wouldn't have done anything that I've done. And you probably have something similar going on in your life, a limiting belief about relationships, about yourself, about your career, about your health.

Write down what those limiting beliefs are, write down new empowering beliefs, and follow what I go through in the workbook in the book. And I want to say thanks so much, everybody, for listening. By the way, If you enjoyed this episode, hey, I want to encourage you, hey, share it with a friend who needs to hear it.

If you know somebody and you're thinking about, man, this person really has a limiting belief that's holding them back, hey, make sure to share this episode with them. And just know every week I'm excited to help you unlock your potential to thrive in body, mind, and spirit through these proven principles and timeless truths.

And again, don't forget to subscribe because I'm doing a whole series On identity and purpose, and of course, a lot more health content as well that's going to be coming out. And don't forget also to hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single episode. Thanks so much for being part of the podcast and have an incredible week.