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I am well and truly a child of the 80's. I remember dad coming home from Blockbuster video with the latest movie that we'd watch as a family. There was the inevitable minor skirmish between myself and my siblings over whose turn it was to get up and press play on our top loading beta max video player.
Some of my favourite films were the Indiana Jones movies. Harrison Ford was my first crush and Indiana Jones has definitely been a big influence on the books I read and write myself.
In the Bronze Box and Solomon's Secrets (already available on Amazon) and Gabriel's Game, the third book in the Sheridan and Blake Adventure Series (currently being written), my heroine is British Archaeologist, Dr Sasha Blake and her companion and the hero of the stories is an antiquities expert and former SAS soldier, Tom Sheridan.
One of those legendary cinematic moments is the opening scene in Raiders of The Lost Ark where Indie escapes from a booby trapped cavern with a golden idol. He is running from a massive boulder, hurtling towards him. I love Harrison Ford's facial expressions, his look of relief and that lovely smile of his when he grabs the vine, then the look of horror as it slips through his fingers. Throughout the movie we feel everything Indie feels and can't help but root for him.
I really felt the pain of Sheldon, Raj, Howard and Leonard when Amy ruined it for all of us in this episode of The Big Bang Theory.
I'm yet to forgive my namesake for doing this to us all, but I still love The Big Bang Theory
The giant boulder in the opening scene of Raiders serves to remind us that we are all running from our own giant boulders.
We all carry heavy stones around that hold us back, these are the limiting beliefs that we have about ourselves. The things we tell ourselves, or have been told by others, we 'can't do'. The more we and others tell us we can't do it, the more we believe it.
We've been carrying our limiting beliefs around with us, often since a painful memory in childhood, so moving it aside in one step is a daunting challenge.
Break the task down into smaller parts, chip away at that boulder or edge around it slowly and carefully by setting small goals and stretching your comfort zone:
Beliefs are a powerful tool for both positive and negative. We tell ourselves we can't do something and we believe it, the same is true if we tell ourselves what we can do. Positive affirmations are a great way to remind us that we can do things.
Try telling yourself some of these instead:
- If I'm confused about it, that means I'm about to learn something
- I can't change the past but I can make my own future
- There is always a way around an obstacle (Tweet this)
- Whatever decision I make, the important part is to make a decision so things can be different
- Celebrate small victories and take pleasure in little things
- Assume makes an ASS of U and ME
- What other people think of me is none of my business
- What I do today is a the only way I can change tomorrow (Tweet this)
- However bad it gets, there is always someone worse off than me
- Creative energy flows through me and I need to share it
- Only I control me and my thoughts
My life is filled with wonderful people
- Worry is a waste of imagination (Tweet this)
- I know myself, I trust myself
- If I don't try, how will I ever learn
We also hold ourselves back by aiming for perfection.
No matter how many small goals we set ourselves, it will never be perfect because perfection is a fallacy. There is no such thing as perfection. It's an unrealistic and unattainable goal so why set it for ourselves?
Everything we ever do can only be 'good enough' - and that's OK.
If someone had told Indiana Jones that his intervention in saving the ark from the Nazi's would make no difference to the eventual outcome, would it have stopped him from going anyway? If he believed that he wasn't able to make a difference right from the start, it would make him a very different person (and it would have been a boring movie!).
We all live our lives in a narrative in which we are the central character. If your life were a movie, you'd want it to be a good one.
Face the booby traps, go after the golden idol, save the girl, save the world - You'll be a better person for it and your movie will be worth watching.
Is there one thing you can do today to challenge your limiting beliefs?
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