Let me tell you a story about someone who thought he was limited and couldn’t change.

In the mid 70’s no human being had ever lifted 500 pounds overhead, and nobody believed it was even possible. A Russian named Vasily Alexeyev held the world’s record at the time. Vasily had come close, but never achieved 500 pounds.

For one important competition, his trainers told him that he would be lifting a weight he had lifted before—499 pounds. But after lifting it, he discovered that his trainers had deceived him about the weight; he had actually lifted more than 500 pounds and set a new world record.

What the trainers did was purposely tell him to do something he already knew he could do. They had erased a limitation that had been embedded not only in Vasily’s mind, but also in the mind of every other weight lifter. And very shortly after breaking the 500 pound barrier, Vasily went on to lift more than 560 pounds overhead in less than two years!

SELF-LIMITING OBSTACLES

Here is another great example:

In the early 1950’s it was a commonly accepted belief that it was physically impossible for a human being to run a mile in less than four minutes. It was called the “four-minute barrier.” But in Oxford England on May 6, 1954, a young man named Roger Bannister proved the world wrong when he ran a mile in under four minutes. Once it had been proven that it could be done, other runners began running the mile in under four minutes. When a long-held belief was changed, the barrier was broken, and today running a mile in under four minutes is quite common.

This type of thing happens all the time in athletics, but do you realize the implications of this for your own life?

A REAL WORLD EXAMPLE OF LIMITING BELIEFS

Here’s a perfect real-life example of how this principle can apply in your day-to-day life. A friend of mine who was a salesman in Kansas for a big company had made $50,000 a year for two consecutive years. The company decided to move him into a better territory where he could make a lot more money, but an amazing thing happened; he wound up making the exact same amount of money—$50,000. Then his company moved him to another area where a former salesman had made only $30,000, and once again my friend wound up making $50,000.

When I discussed this pattern with him, we discovered that his father had made $50,000 and that number had become set in his mind as the limit of what he could earn.

This is a very common pattern—people limit themselves by their parents’ accomplishments. What happened to my friend is that his subconscious programming kept him on course to always make $50,000—no more, no less, regardless of circumstances.

ARE YOU ON AUTOPILOT?

The subconscious works like an automatic pilot which keeps us on a programmed course until that program is changed. If the autopilot of an airplane is set for a course which takes it into the side of a mountain, that is where the plane is going. And if your subconscious autopilot is set on failure, you will fail.

The subconscious doesn’t reason like the conscious mind does. It simply carries out its program.

Our subconscious doesn’t just affect our finances. Our health, our relationships, and all other circumstances are also products of the subconscious blueprint we have drafted for ourselves.

Many people simply don’t believe they are worthy of love, or of a fulfilling, supportive, and loving relationship. Of course, theywant a good relationship, but deep down, they don’t believe they deserve one, and their lives become self-fulfilling prophecies. So, often people end up sabotaging their relationship, even when they are in a relationship that could be a really fulfilling one.

Our self-image is made up of all the things we believe about ourselves in the deepest part of our being. To master the second law of success, you must believe in what you can become. Your life reflects your self-image.

REMEMBER: THE 2ND LAW OF LIFE SUCCESS IS:

You can only become what you BELIEVE you can become.