Thoughts of a Mad Man

Limiting Beliefs

As part of my self-work I was thinking about how to identify limiting beliefs. Once you recognize an assumption, you have a host of new options. For example, you assume that work has to be drudgery. Challenge that and you can look for things you enjoy or find ways to enjoy the things you need to do (the latter, according to Sadhguru, being genius.)


So how did this spark an article in my blog about writing?


Long before we had shelves of self help guides we had stories. Maybe even before we even had words--we would watch each other and learn. Stories do the same thing only they are in our DNA. Any decent idea from the self-help shelf will port easily into stories; if it doesn't, it's likely nonsense. This is no exception.


Blogs and books on writing tend to use different language. For example, K.M. Weiland in her blog, Helping Writers Become Authors, talks about "the Lie." I think it's easier to think of it as a limiting belief, but easier to talk about the Lie.


My thought on how to identify limiting beliefs for yourself or your characters is to identify wishes. First, make a list of wishes. If you want to be really thorough, when you pick one, make a list of reasons why you would want that wish. It's not necessary, but it might make for deeper thinking.


Then, what you do is think of why you can't just go out and get that. Some of these will be objective true things they might have to deal with; other's not so much. Whether you're the wisher's therapist, life coach, or their author, it should be obvious that some of these are nothing but a log of bologna--if there's something reasonable, some hint of reason, it's still a bologna sandwich (BS.) That's their limiting belief, the Lie that they believe. What's good about this is that you now have an internal obstacle, something that only causes them trouble because they think it's true.


In case you're thinking that these false assumptions are easy to beat, think of the story I heard (citation needed) of Harry Houdini's hardest challenge. He bragged that if he were given his street clothes he could escape from any jail. Yet for hours he toiled to unlock this prison door. In despair, exhausted, he slumped against the unlocked door.


True or not, you can see that a simple-to-test false belief can have huge ramifications. What if the door just isn't locked--have you checked? What if the girl you like doesn't need grand displays--she's hinting that she wants to be asked?


For better versions, I recommend finding limiting beliefs that are complex. These have loads of evidence, they might even be the basis of he hero's understanding of himself. "I'm a loser" or "I'm not smart enough" or "Nobody will help me." These things guide the hero away from the simple solution. Then you press them until in desperation or despair they try the thing they would never try.


With that, you have a host of points a story could make. These range from simple morals of the story, like "Even losers get lucky" or "even supposedly stupid people can figure things out" to deeper things like, "Can I work with people who have done unforgivable things?"


That wish list is itself a gold mine for plots. Looking into the illusions that keep them just out of reach will double your plotting power.