Limiting Belief #3: Past Failure Means Future Failure

In previous lessons, you discovered how time and age don’t have to limit you at all! Another belief that limits many people is, “Once a failure, always a failure.” Let’s put that belief out of its misery right now.

If you’ve ever tried and failed at something in the past, it’s easy to assume that your past failure means that you’ll fail again in the future. That past outcomes guarantee future outcomes. That you’re always doomed to fail at whatever you attempt.

You may be tempted to think, “I always fail at this so why should this time be any different? I’m just a failure overall.”

Your limiting belief is that your past failure means future failure. You assume that the past governs the future. That if something didn’t work in previous attempts, it won’t work in the future.

Rewriting The Limiting Belief

Now let’s rewrite this limiting belief into empowering beliefs.

Limiting Belief:

●“Past failure means future failure.”

Empowering Beliefs:

●“My past failures have no bearing on my future.”

●“Past failures help me avoid future mistakes.”

●“I’ve simply discovered a way that doesn’t work.”

●“Each failure brings me one step closer to success.”

The simple truth is that your past failures do not have any bearing on your current endeavors. Just because you’ve failed in the past doesn’t mean that you’ll fail in the future.

In fact, failure in the past is actually an advantage! You’ve discovered one way that doesn’t work, which means you can avoid that way moving forward.

Thomas Edison struggled for years to figure out how to invent a functioning lightbulb. When asked how he kept going in spite of so much “failure,” he said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

It’s important to adopt a similar belief. You haven’t failed in the past. You’ve simply discovered one particular way that doesn’t work. This has gotten you one step closer to your success.

Or consider the wise words of Winston Churchill: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

If you want to succeed, it’s crucial to understand that failure in the past doesn’t have any bearing on your future. Every “failure” brings you one step closer to the success you desire.

Action Steps

●Write down the ways you think you have “failed” in the past.

●Determine how each failure has actually brought you closer to success.

●Resolve that you will not let past failures keep you from pursuing what really matters to you.

Affirmation

I avoid thinking that my past failures could ever cause me to fail now or in the future. I affirm that each past failure has actually brought me one step closer to success. I am closer to success now than I ever have been in the past.

I refuse to let my past failures keep me from pursuing what really matters to me.

I am committed to my success, regardless of the past.