Is our LIMITS model really that unique?
The idea of Limiting beliefs is a common premise within the concept of coaching but it is important that when you create a new goal that you also reflect on the positives within your life and have a sense of pride and gratitude for everything you have already achieved. Our LIMITS model is unique in offering a starting point of questions to consider that relate to your life.
‘You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.’ (Joyce Meyer)
Many coaching systems begin with activities such as the wheel of life which encourages you to identify the area that you are least satisfied with. Our system first asks you to consider how you feel about your life, identify positives, and negative aspects so that you can create more productive opportunities.
Asking powerful questions about your life is key to coaching and creating change. They create a curiosity about the answer, encourage you to think of different possibilities to explore, and ask you to really think about who you are and how your values and beliefs that have been created throughout your life affect you.
Each of the six areas invite you to explore positive aspects, and negative limiting beliefs then transform these into an achievable action plan.
L – Life, Love, Living it.
Simplistically, it is obvious that you have looked at the idea of coaching because your life may not feel like it is totally fulfilling at present, but let’s turn your action into a positive goal. Can you list five things within your life you have achieved that makes you proud? What are the skills you used or developed? Are the skills you used transferable? Can be used in helping you achieve your new goal and lead to a more fulfilling life?
Love refers to what people love about you. What do they admire? Also ask yourself what it is you admire about yourself?
With these questions as a starting point, you can begin to develop a life where you feel you are really living it and have goals that you feel are possible to achieve.
EXAMPLE; After 20 years working in education, I felt a real pride in how I supported my students and a sense of achievement when they passed qualifications and moved on with new careers and possibilities. I decided I could use these transferable skills to create a new career for myself within coaching.
I – Immersion, Invention, Innovation.
Any new direction we take within our life can feel intimidating and quite scary, but we must remember that change is a constant within our lives.
FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real (Neale Donald Walsch)
Our negative limiting beliefs can just be self-talk developed from our past to create what we see as evidence that reinforces our doubts in ourselves and our abilities.
Creating change involves immersing yourself in the actions you need to take. Visualisation techniques can help you identify with the new life you are inventing for yourself. Innovation refers to thinking outside of the box and being creative about these changes.
M- Motivation, Me, Mindful.
When we are busy, overwhelmed and feel demotivated, we often cannot see the possibility of a way forward. Using a life coach is motivating but the key can be to explore what it is that motivates you and how you can relearn how to help yourself. It is helpful to think of areas in your life where you feel more motivated and why that is the case.
Learning to become more mindful of what is happening around you can seem straightforward but when you feel lost and stuck in a rut, the world can seem a very negative place.
To develop a goal for yourself, you really need to be focused and see the importance of Me, the person that you are, the person you wish to become, your perceptions of how others see you, whether they matter, and how you can become a more positive person.
I – Inspiration, Ideas, Intention.
To move forward, you need to act assertively with the full intention of following an action plan that develops those ideas into a positive and achievable goal. We can use innovative ways to really think about what inspires us to change and how that can help us to stay focused.
T – Time, Today, Tomorrow.
Often, people complain that time is what holds them back from moving forward in their life.
‘Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.’ (William Penn)
Effective time management is a skill that many of us need help with. How we manage our time changes constantly as we are often in a battle with what we want to do for our own personal self-growth and development and the roles and responsibilities we have in our everyday life.
S – Space, Self, Skills.
This final section allows you to reflect back, how through the answers from these questions, activities and action planning you have completed, you now recognise the need and importance to schedule space in your life, redefine goals constantly and be truly proud of yourself and all that you have achieved.
This model creates a template for questioning your current life and how you can take an active part in moving it forward. It is intended to help you create an action plan but also identify positive aspects you may have forgotten about. Your individual action plan may only include elements of the model.
