How to Overcome Limiting Inner Voices and Harness Your Potential with NLP

We all know the feeling when we want to do something good and important, but something holds us back. It feels like someone is sitting on our shoulders and telling us: "Don't do it, you won’t succeed, it's not worth the effort...". When we give up on ourselves, we feel frustrated for succumbing once again to an inner voice that keeps us stagnant.

This voice is essentially our inner Pharaoh. It's the internal voice that belittles us, frightens us, and keeps us in stuck. It can communicate in various ways, but it generally uses one or more of the following tactics:

• Threats: The inner Pharaoh might threaten us with failure, poverty, loneliness, or even death. It can tell us we aren't good enough, that we won't succeed, and that we don't deserve what we want.
• Intimidations: The inner Pharaoh can scare us from success. It might say we can't handle the pressure, that we will fail, or that we will fall.
• False evidence of our inability: The inner Pharaoh can concoct evidence of our inability to succeed. It might say we aren't smart enough, not talented enough, or not enough of anything!

These tactics can surface in our personal lives in various situations. For example, they might undermine us when we try to:

• Achieve a new goal, such as moving houses, starting a business, or beginning a new career.
• Face a challenge, like succeeding in studies, breaking a bad habit, or overcoming a fear.
• Express ourselves, such as writing a book, creating a song, or speaking publicly.

When we hear the inner Pharaoh speak to us, it can be hard to resist. We may feel small, powerless, and even lost. But it's important to remember that the inner Pharaoh isn't reality. It's merely the voice of our fear and anxiety.

An NLP tool related to this message is the "Meta Model". The Meta Model is an NLP tool that helps us better understand our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs by asking specific questions that can help us identify our assumptions and generalizations.

Following are some Meta Model questions that can help us understand our inner Pharaoh:

• How do you know that you're not good enough?
• What exactly will happen if you fail?
• Who said you can't handle the pressure?

These questions can help us understand the specific arguments our inner Pharaoh uses to scare and stop us. Once we comprehend these arguments, we can start to challenge them.

For example, if our inner Pharaoh says we will fail and are incapable, we can ask ourselves: "How do I know I'm not capable? Who said I will fail?".

If we can find evidence that we are indeed capable, it can help us feel more confident in ourselves and overcome the fear of our inner Pharaoh.

Another NLP presupposition related to this message is "Every person has all the resources needed to accomplish all their goals". Belief in our ability to succeed stems from understanding that we possess all the strengths and resources we need.

To boost our self-empowerment, we need to focus on our positive attributes. We need to find our strengths and resources and believe that we can use them to achieve our goals. When we strengthen our self-empowerment, we become stronger, more confident, and more prepared to achieve our goals.

To rid ourselves of our inner Pharaoh, we need to connect with our inner Moses. We must remember our greatness, inner strengths, and ability to succeed.

Following are some practical ways to help us connect to our inner Moses:

• Focus on your positives: Write a list of everything you're good at, everything you love about yourself, and all the things you want to achieve in life.
• Surround yourself with supportive people: Find people who love and encourage you, and whose belief in you will help you believe in yourself.
• Fill your life with meaning: Find a purpose in your life, something you believe in, and something that makes you feel that you're contributing to the world.

When we connect to our inner Moses, we strengthen our positive inner voice. We become stronger, more confident, and more prepared to achieve our goals.

We all have the potential to become greater, more successful, and happier individuals

Dr. Rina Mordo, PhD, is a Master Trainer of NLP.