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Recently, I hosted a conference call for agents who are my coaching clients. They were able to ask me any questions they had about their businesses. One of the agents on the call asked me how to overcome limiting beliefs.

Recently, I hosted a conference call for agents who are my coaching clients. They were able to ask me any questions they had about their businesses. One of the agents on the call asked me how to overcome limiting beliefs.

Honestly, it wasn't exactly a question I was expecting. The question was a bit of a surprise because the truth is, many people don't ever realize that everything they believe is accurate. They don't realize that their belief system could be constraining them in their businesses and in life. Folks continue to hang on to certain ideas that they believe to be true without ever considering other possibilities.

I didn't see right away that my beliefs were holding me back when I first launched my real estate brokerage. It wasn't until I started attending mastermind meetings with other entrepreneurs that I began to see things differently about my own business.

As an example, one person in a mastermind meeting I attended had launched a new product within his business that generated close to $2,000,000 of revenue in one month. Before hearing this and seeing it happen from the sidelines, I would never thought this was possible.

Guess what?

This was, for me, a limiting belief. Because I didn't think it could be done, I would have never seen it as an option.

Seeing other people make things happen that I didn't think possible is probably one of the most important benefits of participating in various mastermind meetings. You walk out of the meeting thinking...

"If that person can rake in $2,000,000 in one month, I should be able to (fill in the blank)."

When you get this difference in thinking, you can really amp up your business. You start to see potential that you couldn't see before. It allows you to try more things within your business -- things you wouldn't have attempted previously.

The agent who asked the limiting beliefs question then asked if it was possible to sit down and write about in a weekend. It was obvious that he had a limiting belief that told him the answer was no.

Rather than telling him that it was possible, I suggested he take a little time to go somewhere quiet, shut off his phone, and make a list of all the things he believed were true about his business. I've done this many times over the years, and it's something you might want to consider doing, too.

It might be easiest if you separate these beliefs into categories and make a separate page of your notepad each one. For instance, your first page could be about lead generation. "What do I believe about lead generation?" Then write down anything and everything that comes to mind.

Here are some sample limiting beliefs about lead generation that you might have:

It is costly to generate leads.

Leads cannot possibly be converted into clients automatically.

There's no way I could capture, say, 400 leads a month.

Even if I could generate that many, there's no way I could handle all of them.

My buyers agents won't make calls to the leads I generate.

My leads aren't qualified.

Sign an exclusive representation agreement? Not MY leads.

Now flip the notepad page and ask: "What do I believe about commissions and income?" Here are some beliefs you might be holding onto:

Sellers will only pay "X" (5%, 6%, etc.)

My buyers won't pay more than what is offered in the co-broke commission

My clients wouldn't pay a processing fee on top of the commission

I couldn't possibly sell ______ homes a year.

There's no way I could ever earn a million dollars a year.

Nobody is ever going to want to buy my business

You can probably get the picture of what this process looks like from these examples. Now, the next step is to go through each belief you listed and ask yourself one follow up question:

"What if this weren't true?"

This is a very powerful question to ask because it helps you challenge your belief system.

In the example above, let's use the limiting belief that buyers won't pay a higher commission than what is offered in the co-broke. What if that just wasn't true? Could you change anything you are doing if this isn't true? I would hope so. You would probably set your commission rates more based on the level of services you perform. In many cases, your commission rate could be higher that what you have been offered. Could you charge clients a fee of $2,000 plus the co-broke commission? Perhaps.

You can probably see by now just how costly limiting beliefs can be. And you have them, believe me. I have them, too. We all have them. The goal must be to constantly challenge yourself to see beyond your limiting beliefs, see the possiblities that exist if the beliefs don't. Maybe set aside some time to yourself this weekend and perform this exercise with your pen and notepad. You will soon be able to see the new possibilities for your business and in life in general.

Before I send you off to make your list of limiting beliefs, let me share with you one of my biggest:

"There's no time."

Whenever someone presented a new idea or exciting opportunity to me, my immediate reaction was "There's no time."

Then I just said "Well, what if I did have time?" And instantly, my life was change. I found the time to recruit and hire new agents to my team. I found the time to write two books. I found time to lauch new businesees. Honestly, I found a lot of time I never would have thought I had. Could you be held back right now by a similar belief? What would happen to your business if you had more time, to go after that new idea or write a book of your own? What would happen if you found time to start a new business?

It's definitely worth thinking about.

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