“I’m too old.”

“I always miss out on the good jobs.”

“I don’t have enough education.”

How often do you hear these responses from your clients? I think they’re some of the most common statements we hear from people looking for a job.

These statements are actually beliefs they have formed about themselves, and they are often used in a limiting or resourceful way – e.g., they hold us back from having the things we want.  

The beliefs we have about ourselves always affect the outcome. If your clients have unresourceful beliefs about themselves and their ability to find a job they will love, then they may struggle to overcome them.

It helps to think about where beliefs come from. Often, they come from our past experiences or from people in our lives that we look up to or respect. It’s important we explore where these beliefs come from so we can get context around them.

Your clients may hold beliefs about themselves because someone once told them ‘They couldn’t do something’ or ‘they wouldn’t be able to achieve that.’ Their beliefs may come from experiences such as missing out on something at one time in their life, which becomes a generalised belief that they will always miss out.

In the long term, beliefs will determine your destiny. They control your thoughts, feelings, behaviours and ultimately, the outcomes or results you get in life. Beliefs affect us physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, intellectually and culturally.

And so, when you find your clients talking about their beliefs in a limiting, disempowering or unresourceful way, we need to coach them to see things differently.

Because what we know for sure is that limiting beliefs guarantees limited outcomes.

So how do we overcome limiting beliefs?

There are some simple, clever ways you can help your clients by challenging those beliefs that may be a barrier for them.

These four questions are powerful tools to keep in your coaching toolkit, as they help your clients think about their beliefs differently. Finding ways to dispute or challenge is a great place to start:

• What evidence do you have that supports this? Fact-checking a belief may help you realise they are less significant than you think.
• Is there a different way I can look at this? Finding a positive meaning for your beliefs is a helpful way to think about them.
  
  
• What could I learn from this? What options do you have to look at the belief differently? Is there a way you could look at it to help you grow?
  
  
• Is the impact of the belief really significant? Perhaps the situation isn’t as big or bad as you first thought.

You can help your clients by reinforcing the message that beliefs are a choice and choices can be changed.

Flipping beliefs is a strategy you can use with your clients to get them thinking about beliefs in a positive light. Then, with conscious awareness, repetition and practice, your clients can adapt to challenge their negative thoughts.

We dive deep into the power of beliefs and how they can impact our lives in our Bounce Job Coach Certification. With simple but highly effective tools and strategies, the course shows you exactly how to challenge limiting beliefs and develop a growth mindset so that you can get great outcomes with your clients every time you meet with them.