Is a limiting mindset holding you back? In today’s fast-paced world, creatives and business owners often bump into self-imposed barriers that stifle growth and restrict possibilities. Whether you’re a freelancer, an entrepreneur, or a creative juggling multiple roles, shifting your mindset can play a pivotal role in unlocking new opportunities and making real progress. Let’s dive into how to break through limiting beliefs with the AOCC approach and create a mindset that moves you forward with confidence.

The Subtle Power of Limiting Beliefs

Before diving into practical strategies, it’s essential to recognize what limiting beliefs are and why they have such a stronghold. These beliefs are the rules we pick up from family, society, and past experiences that dictate what we think we can and can’t achieve. For instance, if you’ve ever thought, “I’m not cut out for this” or “It’s too late to start over,” you’ve encountered limiting beliefs at play. While these may seem like passing thoughts, they influence our actions, productivity, and even our business growth.

So, how do we uncover and break free from these restrictive thoughts?

Introducing AAOCC: A Framework for Shifting Mindsets

To help you navigate and transform these beliefs, I’ve developed a simple acronym: AAOCC (Awareness, Acceptance, Observation, Challenge, and Change). This five-step process will help you systematically identify, confront, and shift these mindsets to better serve your goals.

1. Awareness: Recognize Your Limiting Beliefs

The first step is acknowledging these beliefs, even if they feel like second nature. Start by asking yourself:

What rules or beliefs am I following that may not serve me?
Where did these beliefs come from?

Keeping a journal or even talking aloud to yourself during a morning walk can bring these hidden thoughts to light. The simple act of becoming aware of these thoughts lets you recognize patterns you may not have noticed otherwise.

2. Acceptance: Embrace Your Current Beliefs Without Judgment

Once you’ve uncovered these limiting beliefs, it’s natural to feel frustrated or even embarrassed about them. But acceptance is about understanding without judgment. By accepting these beliefs as they are, you can create a space to work with them rather than against them.

For example, if you believe you’re “not ready” to scale your business, embrace that belief without labeling it as bad. Acceptance fosters a non-judgmental environment, making it easier to explore the roots of these beliefs.

3. Observation: Step Back and Analyze Your Beliefs

With awareness and acceptance in place, observe how these beliefs affect your daily thoughts and actions. Are they holding you back from potential opportunities? This observation stage is where real insights emerge.

Ask yourself:

How does this belief impact my actions?
What past experiences might have influenced this belief?

Reflection and observation can lead to “aha” moments that clarify the “why” behind your actions. For example, if you believe “I need to work harder to succeed,” you may realize that this belief stems from a past experience of equating productivity with self-worth.

4. Challenge: Put Your Beliefs to the Test

Now, it’s time to challenge these beliefs. Just because a thought exists doesn’t mean it’s accurate or beneficial. Ask yourself, Is this belief serving my current goals?

A fun exercise for challenging beliefs is to flip the script. If you often think, “I’m not experienced enough,” challenge this by asking, “What if my unique perspective as a newcomer is an asset?” By questioning your thoughts, you can start to reframe them into positive motivators rather than barriers.

5. Change: Actively Reshape Your Thoughts and Actions

Change happens when you integrate your new beliefs with action. Think about small steps that support your new mindset and reinforce it over time. For example, if you’ve been challenging the belief “I need to be perfect before I launch,” you might commit to publishing that blog post you’ve been sitting on or sharing your latest project with your audience.

Remember, change is a gradual process. Neural pathways—our brain’s way of wiring behaviors—take time to reprogram. So, be patient with yourself as you work through this. Even small actions add up, creating lasting change over time.

Practical Tips for Nurturing a Mindset Shift in Business

Once you’ve started the AOCC process, here are some practical strategies to stay on track:

Set a Daily Reminder: Keep a visual reminder on your desk or phone to reinforce your new mindset.
Connect with a Supportive Community: Surround yourself with people who encourage growth and share similar goals.
Schedule Regular Reflection: Once a week, spend 10 minutes assessing your progress. This will help you celebrate wins and recognize areas for further development.

Final Thoughts

Breaking through limiting beliefs takes time, patience, and consistency. But by bringing awareness, acceptance, observation, challenge, and change into your mindset work, you’re setting yourself up to transform your thoughts and actions—and ultimately, your business.

This week, pick one belief or rule that’s been holding you back and take it through the AOCC process. You may be surprised at how quickly your perspective—and your results—start to shift.

Memorable Quotes

"It doesn't take much for us to believe that we can't or shouldn't do something."

"When that voice inside of our head tells us no, we rarely question it."

You're listening to episode six of the Mindful Productivity podcast. And today we're going to be talking all about how to break through mindsets that hold us back in this episode. Not only am I going to be calling out out some of these mindsets that may be holding you back, whether you know it or not. But I'm also going to be talking about practical ways that you can begin to explore them and shift through them through an acronym I call a AOCC, and we'll be diving into that more deeply in the podcast episode ahead.
Welcome to the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intentions, then get ready to join me as we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity. It's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live. And it all starts now.
When I was a senior in high school, I was really excited because we had the senior parking lot, and I spent weeks between my junior and senior year over that summer saving up $75 so that I could buy my own parking permit. This meant that I wasn't going to have to park at my work, my job and walk. I think it was like maybe a mile up the road to the high school in the rain. I was going to be able to park in the senior parking lot.
And you know how badass that makes you feel when you're in high school, anything that sets you apart from the freshman, no matter if you try to deny it or not, it feels good. And I remember having this pass and being able to park in the senior lot, and it was maybe 30ft closer to the school. So it made it a little bit easier when I was running late, which seemed to be all the time. There was one morning in the spring that year where I got to school.
I got to the senior lot and anywhere from I think it was like four or five of the senior parking lot spaces were completely blocked off. They had cones around them. They had tape. Do not enter tape, and there was no explanation, except this big sign was spray paint that said, no parking here. Today. I was like, what? And I spent a couple of moments in my head being really frustrated and kind of wanting to know more about why, but just decided to go find another parking spot and deal with it.
Well, obviously, I was not the only person that felt like this was super ridiculous and unnecessary, and in fact, it was like kind of the talk of the whole school that day about why we couldn't park in these parking spaces. Who had made this sign? Was it the principal was it someone else. And Lo and behold, we find out it was a sociology experiment done by some of my classmates to see what would happen if they merely put up a sign and said, no, do not enter.
I thought this was really interesting because it doesn't really take much for us to believe that we can't or shouldn't do something. Now flash forward. Years later, I was in another situation where there was a cone in front of a parking space, and I ended up moving it and parking there. Now, whether or not you could say that that makes me a bad person, we could have a whole other dialogue about that. But the point is that when we have barriers in our lives or when we run into things or when other people tell us no, or when, let's be honest, that voice inside of our head tells us no, we rarely tend to question it.
In fact, all I would have had to do in that moment in high school is run up to the office and go, hey, there's very few parking spots left, and these five are blocked off. I want to know why I'd like to park there. I also could have just moved up and parked there, but I wanted to know why, and sometimes we take on risks and we don't know what will happen. And it could have been a safety reason. Right. So there's all these things in place.
But the story really brings us back to this point that it doesn't take much. And if you're like most human beings, you may tend to want to go with the flow. It's easier if you follow the rules. It's easier to get accolades. It's easier for people to say, hey, you're on the right path. You're doing the right thing. You're doing a good job, and it's easier for ourselves to feel that way, too. The problem is that if we don't make it a practice to challenge these beliefs and these mindsets that we have within ourselves, whether they are from our own internal dialogue, whether they're cultural or sociological norms, cultural norms within our family, cultural norms within the country we grew up in or even the town.
If we don't challenge them, then sometimes we can find ourselves in places in our life that feel kind of miserable, or we can make it harder for ourselves to attain the goals and step into the life and the lifestyle that we really want to have. So in today's episode, I really want to explore that. I want to explore some of the mindsets that we grow up with, some of the ones that we create for ourselves, maybe kind of how that happens and then how to challenge them.
And that powerful acronym I talked about in the beginning that you can use to go through the entire process. So I want to start off first with the rules in our lives that others have created for us, and somehow we've knowingly or unknowingly adopted. I was talking to one of my best friends the other day and she was telling me about someone new that she's dating, and she was telling me that in the past when she would go on these dates, if something would happen and she'd share it with a friend.
Sometimes that friend would say something like, oh, well, I don't like that or he shouldn't do that or started making all these assumptions about something. And my friend would say sometimes I would just kind of take on that thought and be like, oh, you're right. And I pointed out to her, it sounds like sometimes what you're hearing is an idea and a mindset and a belief that you're taking on. And I challenged her on it. And I said, what if you every time you heard something from a friend instead of being like, oh, yeah, that's so true.
What if you said, Wait a minute. That's not my thought. That's not my belief. Do I even want to accept this belief? And I think that's similar to what happens for all of us throughout our lives. You may grow up in a household where you're made to believe that being successful means going straight to College or going on a certain career path or doing certain extracurricular activities after school, even in high school or middle school, or making sure that you have a certain kind of job or making sure that you're on a certain kind of sports team or anything like that.
And while I think most of the time we can generally assume that our parents and the people that we grow up around want the best for us, and they're only trying to help. Sometimes we unknowingly take these ideas that other people instill on us and we run with them, and it really keeps us blocked from really going down a path that would make us feel more fulfilled, that would make us feel more successful and that ultimately would be easier and actually would yield more success, more money, more happiness, whatever it is than trying to funnel ourselves into this view that someone else has for us.
So it's important to really think about the rules. And I say rules and rules could be beliefs or certain ideologies about what it means to be successful. But we have to really take into consideration sometimes, just like I told my friend when we're thinking about something, when we are applying to go to College or when we're transitioning careers or thinking about starting a family or not or deciding we don't want to do something that's typically mainstream. Maybe you don't want to get married, maybe you don't want to have kids, maybe you don't want to work nine to five, and maybe you want to go travel the world and do something completely different than what is normally deemed as successful.
Quote, unquote. It's important to be like, is this rule that's in my head, is this mine or is this someone else's that has manifested my entire life in my brain that I think I have to accomplish and breaking this down even further. It's like we also have rules that we create for ourselves and going beyond just what it means to be successful in that kind of giant idea. We also have rules that we create for ourselves within our daily routine. I was recently working with a client.
I do mental detox sessions with clients, and we work through all kinds of mental decluttering and setting up structure in their lives, and I provide them with a habit tracker. It's so much fun. And anyway, I was going through this process with a client, and she realized something really powerful that she had created rules in her life about not only the things she should do on a daily basis, but maybe even the order of them. And so it's really important to think about the rules that you create in terms of just how you want to go about your life and being more flexible.
I was recently working with a coach. I often hire coaches for myself, too, and she was really helpful in helping me kind of cultivate and create a morning routine. And one thing I realized was that I had and I've had this rule forever that if I don't do my workout first thing in the morning, then my whole day kind of sucks. And when am I going to ever do the workout right? It's like I have to do it then or not at all. It's kind of that all or nothing mentality now, ideally, I'd love to get my workout done.
I'd love to get up at 05:00 a.m.. I'm that weird person that I never seem to get enough sleep to be able to get up at 05:00 a.m.. But I love it when I do. I love being up at the crack of dawn. I love it, but it's not always realistic for me to get the workout in there. And at that time. And so I have to realize that I have to be flexible. And it even comes down to things like when I spend time organizing or cleaning or decluttering my home.
Sometimes I'll automatically start with these rules like, well, you've got to do the kitchen first and the living room and you've got a vacuum first or you've got to do this or that. And sometimes it can be really interesting to take a step back and be like, wait a minute. Like, do I have to do all of this now or can I switch it around? Same thing happened to me. I move a lot with my husband, and it always happens to me when I'm unpacking. I always get in my head that I've got to do certain things a certain way, and I'm sure there's a process, right.
Like, you want to put the big pieces of furniture in the house first, and you don't want to go backwards. So it is a little bit easier. But sometimes I would come up with these crazy rules about how I had to unpack things that I wouldn't even get started, or I'd spend hours thinking about how I exactly how I'd want to do something that I wouldn't actually just get started and do it. So there's rules that we create for ourselves with daily tasks. There's rules that other people give us, too.
And maybe you feel this way, too, about starting a morning routine or starting a schedule or anything. And I have a lot of other colleagues I talk with on a daily basis, other business owners, other entrepreneurs. And I was having this amazing conversation with a good friend the other day, and I was like, It's 10:00 p.m.. It's like a Tuesday, and I am just wired like, I'm feeling super in the zone, and I kept telling her, oh, no, this is awful because I have to go to bed.
But I'm totally in the zone, and I'm mapping out this new program. I'm going to start and launch, and I wish my brain would turn off so I could go to sleep. And she challenged me, and she goes, Why can't you just keep working? And I go, oh, my gosh. Well, how could I possibly keep working? Like, what if I stayed up all night and she's like, yeah, what if you did? And the truth was that I was so in the zone that I was able to stay up.
I think I ended up staying up till two or 03:00 a.m., but I got everything done. It was all Crystal clear. It was just flowing through me, and I realized that I was creating a rule for myself. That because I work from home because I do these things. I don't need to be in one place in the morning. So I was really creating this rule for myself. That because the past me was working nine to five and had to do these things that I couldn't possibly stay up past my bedtime.
I couldn't possibly stay up all night and do this when really, that was exactly what I needed to do. So I was flexible with it. And sometimes it's about breaking the rules that we think we have, and it's not even breaking a rule. It's just being flexible and adapting to it. And so as you're listening to this, think about rules that you have rules that you've created for yourself, rules that other people have told you. It's kind of like when you finally move out of your parents house in whatever capacity that is, whether that's going to a dorm, whether that's getting your own place, whether that's moving in with a spouse or a significant other or a friend or roommate.
There's that moment when I think everyone has this moment in their lives where it's like, I can do whatever I want and I felt that way when I was 16 and my grandma gave me the keys to her 1986 Chevy Cavalier. You guys, I named it Goldie. I even bought really cheap, not exterior car stickers. There were stickers for something that you'd make on a third grade project whiteboard, and I stuck them onto the back window of the car, and I labeled it Goldie. And luckily, my 82 year old grandma at the time didn't seem to mind.
In fact, she thought it was pretty cool, but this car barely ran. In fact, I had so many problems with it. There was a point when I was driving on the freeway and it wouldn't go above 25 miles an hour and everyone was honking at me and driving around me. But the point of this story and why I'm really telling this is because when I got that car, I felt freedom, like nothing else. And the deal was that I had to take my grandma grocery shopping every Tuesday after school, and I had to pay for my insurance and the gas and everything else totally doable.
I got the job, I got a job. I did everything I needed. But that first night that I had that car, it was complete freedom. And I think at the time I went out and bought a bunch of fast food just because I could, like, I could drive through the drive through and do it. And I remember just feeling like, oh my gosh, I can do anything I want now and anything I want involved, like driving to Taco Bell in the middle of the night or something or being able to go pick up friends and doing all these things that are super fun and impulsive.
And as an adult now, I don't do anymore because it's not healthy, right? Like, I don't go buy a bunch of junk food at 12:00 a.m. Just because I can. But when I was 16, that was everything. And sometimes it's really worth breaking the rules. And it's really worth doing stuff that makes us feel so good, even if it's not the norm. And as you're listening to this again, I just want to remind you that there are so many rules that you have within you that aren't serving you right now, and it's worth acknowledging them.
And it's worth challenging them and questioning them. And we'll get into a little bit of that in a little bit here as well. But I also want to touch on kind of defining this other part of these rules that we have. And that is limiting beliefs and limiting beliefs are essentially kind of the same thing. They're basically beliefs that we hold about ourselves about a situation, about an outcome or about something that we can or cannot do. And it's basically a belief that limits us. It's a belief that this is how something will go or this is how something will happen or not happen.
And we tend to justify it really well because something similar has happened in the past or because something happened to a friend or because we haven't seen it happen before, right? Like in the last two podcasts back, I think I talked about that four minute mile, and if you haven't listened to that, it's the whole podcast and why you should do it anyway. Go back and check that one out. It's great when I talk about that story, but the point is that lifting these limiting beliefs can be really powerful.
And there's a whole course within my mindful Productivity Hub membership where I talk about this and one of my students that went through there, she wrote a testimonial for it, but I want to read it because she talks about something that I think I really wanted to point out as well. So she says this course is designed to help you identify what's holding you back. We all know we should be doing something, but we continue our lives the way they always were. This complacent mindset does more harm than good.
Sarah guides you through the insightful questions and makes you think about the result of taking positive action or making the choice to not do anything at all. Make sure you have time to tackle a task afterwards because you will be super motivated to start right after the completion of this course. So thank you, Candace, for writing that review. But I wanted to point that out because when it comes to limiting belief, she brought up a really good point. Sometimes we all know that we should be doing something or something differently, but we continue to live our lives the same way.
And this is exactly what limiting beliefs do to us because they make us think right. It comes back to that cycle of, like, our thoughts, create our thought patterns and our beliefs, and then our actions. Right. So when we have a limiting belief and especially when we don't know it and we don't bring awareness to it, it impacts us day in and day out in the past. And even sometimes now a limiting belief I have that I have to work with and work through is I just can't do that physically.
Sometimes I'll think, oh, I want to go for a run, and I'm like, oh, I just can't. I can totally go for a run. I can totally get on the treadmill. But sometimes I think that because I'm so tired or because I'm not mentally in that space, it's impossible for me to do that. Or I think that even if I'm consistent with something, that I won't see the results because I don't know what that will feel like yet. And the truth is that's a huge part of what living beliefs do.
So really acknowledging the symptoms of that and calling it out can be really helpful. And I dive more into that in the lifting limiting beliefs course in the Hub but I did want to talk to you guys today about some solid things and things you can consider when you do realize that you do have mindset, rules, limiting beliefs, any of that kind of stuff that are impeding, you taking action and moving forward with your goals. So first of all, it's also about trusting the flow of process.
And sometimes we get so caught up in the how and we want to be in control of everything. We want to know exactly how something is going to happen. And when that we actually kind of like stall ourselves from taking action or we don't do what we actually need to do in order to get something done, because we go, Well, I don't want to do that yet because I don't know what that exact outcome is going to be, or I don't know how that's going to feel, or I don't know how someone's going to react when really we don't need to necessarily worry about the how we need to get really clear on what we want.
So I'll ask you that now, what do you want right now? What's the one thing you want? And let's just start with today. What's one thing that you want, whether it's an action you want to take, whether it's a big picture goal, how does that impact your day? Today, your day today? And why do you find yourself stalling yourself? Another great book to read I highly recommend is The Big Leap. And in this he talks about he talks about limiting beliefs, and he talks about how we can kind of do something called like self sabotage, too, which I can get into at another time, but really asking yourself what you really want and getting clear on that and then kind of letting go of how it's going to happen, because here's the thing.
And if you look back in your life, I'm sure you can find examples. But there are so many things that you are going to want in your life. And there's so many things that you are going to get and totally have more than you could have ever imagined. It's really stepping into that mindset and that belief that life is happening for you, not against you. There are awful things that happen in our lives, and I'm not trying to blanket this with a Positivity quote because I hate that.
But if you do think about the little daily minutiae things that happen to you or even bigger picture situations that you find yourself in and you're like, oh, this is awful. It's constantly annoying. I don't like it sometimes just asking yourself, how are things actually happening for me or unfolding for me can change everything about what you're seeing. And sometimes then you can start to see challenges as actually opportunities to improve or become a better person or create this growth within yourself. Because the truth is that the more crap you deal with in your life, the stronger of a person you're going to be, the more you're going to know, the more tenacity and resilience you're going to build.
And then when you do find yourself in another situation later in life, when there is a difficulty because there will be more right like it never ends. But that's okay. And accepting that you're going to have that much more resilience, that much more strength, wisdom, knowledge, inner self efficacy and power to move forward. So trust the flow of the process, trust that you just need to know what you want. You don't need to know how it's going to happen, and that can change everything for you.
So let's dive into this acronym I've been talking about, which can really help you begin to notice a mindset. You have a rule that you've placed within your life or that someone else has or that a societal standard has placed how to move past it. How to begin that process. So the acronym is AA O-C-C-I wish I had an acronym that sounded cool, like Koala, but I don't. So let's talk about each one of these things. So the first one is awareness. You have to bring awareness to your beliefs.
And the biggest thing I recommend doing for this is journaling, spending time, journaling, spending time with your thoughts. And if you're not into meditating, which is totally fine, go for a walk without your phone, go for a long walk without your phone. Be safe. But don't take your phone. And sometimes I take my phone and I'm like, Well, I'm just going to listen to a podcast or I'm just going to listen to some music. And that's great. But there is something really powerful about going and doing something without any distraction and really being in the moment where all these ideas and self reflection will come to you and you'll go, oh, my God, I had no idea.
So bring awareness to your beliefs, to the rules that you're instilling and start from there. The next one is acceptance. You have to accept what you currently believe, because the more you fight something, you're not going to be able to work with it. It's like a belief trying to walk into your room and you just constantly shutting and slamming the door in his face and being like, no, you're not going to be able to step out of that room and actually expand your life and expand your mindset and your beliefs.
If you're spending all your time hiding yourself in this room blocking out the beliefs that you currently have. So when I'm talking about acceptance, I'm also talking about non judgment, which is a huge component of mindfulness. So instead of judging the beliefs that we have, it's really accepting them, really holding space to be like, I really have this belief about myself. I really believe that I'm not capable of doing this. Or I really believe that if I don't do it this one way that a certain person or family member or colleague in my life told me to do it.
Then I'm not going to be successful or I'm not going to have support or I'm not going to have the resources that I need and really accepting that and going deep with that and using that to empower yourself. And when you can step into nonjudgment like that, really powerful things happen. Once you've done these first two things, and you could do these in a Journal. You could do this mentally as you go through this walk without your phone. After you go through awareness and acceptance, you're going to then step into this phase of observing and really observing your thoughts and observing how that feels.
And there's something really powerful that Nathaniel Brandon touches on. And he talks about different forms of acceptance. And sometimes we can't accept the feeling that we're having or a situation that we're going through. But he asked this powerful question, can you accept that you don't accept it? And most of the time, it's yes. So if you can start there, you can work your way closer. And as you're observing your thoughts, as you're observing these rules, these limiting beliefs that you have instilled in your life, you're going to then start to see more within them, because even the things that we believe that don't serve us, they have Nuggets of wisdom.
They'll show us things about ourselves. They'll make us realize, oh, I have this belief. It's not serving me. But it came from this. And, oh, my gosh, that is something I experienced when I was ten years old in class, when my teacher told me that the assignment I turned in was awful. And so then I've just always thought that that's not possible for me. Right. And the truth is that when we really open and hold that space for observing, powerful things happen. Okay. So the fourth one, there's five, and my Bulldog is totally chewing on something in the background.
I hope you Canva hear. But the fourth one is challenging. So at this point in the process, you've created awareness, acceptance. You're observing. But now you're going to challenge some of these beliefs. You're going to actually kind of bring them to trial. I'd say maybe take them out to ludge like, you're not judging them, but you're being like, okay, it's kind of like if someone says something to you, like, you're having a debate or an argument with someone and someone says something, and, you know, it's not factual.
You know, it's not true. Or they said something about something that you believe and you're like, oh, no. I actually don't think that about you. And so it's not being like, no, you're wrong. But it's challenging them in a really compassionate way. And we can do this with ourselves, too. We can do this with the thoughts we have, challenging our thoughts that we have and saying okay. I see that. I see that there's evidence for that. Or I've experienced that in the past. But what would change in my life if I no longer let that belief lead me?
And instead, I just noticed that belief. But what if I challenged it? What are some ways that I could begin to challenge it with my actions and not just my thoughts? What are some ways that I can really start to almost kind of rebel against it in a really compassionate, fun way that really does end up serving you. And then lastly, the fifth point in the last C here is changing. So you've begun to challenge that thought. That rule, that belief, that limiting belief, whatever it is, you begin to challenge your current mindset.
But now you can start to change it. And that all starts with your thoughts. And that starts with you challenged it. You've taken. Maybe you've taken an action or you've listed out the actions that you're going to take, but actually changing it. And this takes time, because in our brains, we actually create neural pathways that are formed after, like, months and days and years and years of having a certain thought. And essentially, that triggering a response within our neurons, within our synapse, that firing of that energy, that electricity within our brain that creates a neural pathway.
Basically, I like to think of these as when you go sledding in the snow as a kid. And like, that first time that you go sledding down a Hill, like, maybe the snow is kind of powdery, or maybe the top is kind of crunchy, and you have to kind of like, Pat your sled down into the snow and you have to kind of, like, really put your weight into it. And that first sled, if you will, down that Hill, is not the most fun. In fact, sometimes you get stuck.
You kind of like, stop and you have to get back up and put your weight into it again and really get going. But then your brother goes down. It after you, and he kind of like ices it up a little bit, and then you go down at it again. And after enough times of going down that little pathway that you've created in the snow, the cold continues to go. Maybe it rains, it gets a little icing on top. And all of a sudden, before you know it, that thing will just you get on it.
You barely even have to push yourself and you will glide down it. And that's exactly what we do in our brains. That's exactly how we form neural pathways. So as you're thinking about changing your mindset, you have to be patient with yourself and know that it's going to take some time. And that when you're creating a new neural pathway and a new belief in your mind, you're not going to have that super icy gliding pathway immediately. In fact, you're going to have to challenge yourself to keep going down that and even journaling it out like this is the belief I have, and this is where my mind normally goes and mapping it out like this is where I want it to go.
And walking yourself through that process can actually help you do that. And there's an amazing book by Rick Hansen called Buddha's Brain, where he dives deep into neuroplasticity. That's essentially what I'm talking about now and how we can begin to change our neural pathways and the automatic responses and reactions that we have to certain thoughts that we have within our brain, within our mind. It's crazy and how we physically change our brains depending on our thoughts. It's amazing. It's fascinating. And it just proves how powerful mindset work actually is.
And this is really a new idea for a lot of people because it's not something tangible. It's like you're not going to the gym and seeing a six pack or definition in your biceps or feeling it. But it is something that is just as much of an actual tangible Bella result physically in your brain, but also something that you'll notice over time. And as you change your thoughts as you go through this acronym of Awareness Acceptance, Observing, challenging and changing. You'll notice this for yourself, too.
So today this week moving forward, get clear. I challenge you to go on a walk or do something around your house that doesn't involve you being super distracted, even something like cleaning or tidying. Sometimes that's something I can do just while it's quiet. Can I really allow my brain to kind of have these realizations and those thoughts? So take some of your mindset beliefs, your limiting beliefs, your rules that you have in your head and take them out for lunch. Take them out for coffee, create a space for them this week where you can begin to hear what they have to say because there's a lot of wisdom within them.
And the minute you do, you're going to be able to start to shift things for yourself and really make change in your life. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of The Mindful Productivity Podcast. I've had so much fun creating these episodes so far, and the reviews I'm getting are amazing. If you've been enjoying this podcast and you want to make sure that other people can find it as well, I highly encourage you to leave a review so that other people can find it easier. And if you're also wondering more about that lifting limiting belief course I was talking about.
You can find it within my monthly membership site, the Mindful Productivity Podcast. Get all the show notes and more information about things I talked about today Head Mindful Productivity Podcast. And as always, thanks for being here. And as this one last reminder, just know that you are so much more capable than you give yourself credit for. How's have a fantastic week and I'll see you next Monday.