Latest / Age Like a Badass Mother / Ep. 107: How to Eliminate Limiting Beliefs with Shelly Lefkoe
Transcript
- 0:00Hi friend. According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, 92% of people who try to change their behavior fail.
- 0:07Why? Because they focus on the symptoms, not the source. The problem isn't your willpower, it's your beliefs. And those can be eliminated.
- 0:15Well, you're in for a real treat today because my guest is Shelly Lefko, the preeminent authority on eliminating beliefs that are holding you back in life, like I'm not good enough.
- 0:26So stay tuned because she changed my life.
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- 1:13You'll find that information in the show notes.
- 1:15And now, let's eliminate our limiting beliefs.
- 1:19with Shelley Lefco.
- 1:31Years ago, I Googled how to erase limiting beliefs, and it led me to Shelly Lefko.
- 1:36Her words made perfect sense to me.
- 1:39I was self-sabotaging, and she helped me change that.
- 1:42So today I am so honored that I actually get to talk to that very person who doesn't even know she helped me.
- 1:49Shelley Lefko is the co-founder and CEO of the Lefco Institute and an international keynote speaker whose programs have helped over a hundred and fifty thousand people worldwide.
- 2:00Permanently eliminate limiting beliefs that hold them back.
- 2:03She's the author of Hitting the Wall, Eliminate the Beliefs That Sabotage Your Business and Life, and her revolutionary Lefko method has transformed the lives of thousands.
- 2:13You know that I like to get to the root of the problem, and that's what we're gonna do today.
- 2:17So let's understand what limiting beliefs are and how to get rid of them forever.
- 2:21Please welcome Shelly Lefko. Hello.
- 2:25beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren.
- 2:28~ like I said, I I'm honored to talk to you.
- 2:31I've known who you are for a long time.
- 2:33And ~ I believe that you really did help me.
- 2:36So thank you. so I know that your You're welcome, it's my joy.
- 2:43late husband, Morty, developed the system.
- 2:47Can tell us something about him.
- 2:49What do you want what do you just tell us one thing about him?
- 2:52He was an angel. He was the most extraordinary human being.
- 2:55I'll tell you what they said. That's a great question.
- 2:57And I'll tell you what they said at his memorial.
- 3:00They said he was the most loving man they ever met.
- 3:03They said he was the most non-judgmental man they ever met.
- 3:09My daughter stood up and said, I not only knew I was loved unconditionally every day of my life.
- 3:16But I never felt judged by my father.
- 3:19And two people said I knew him forty years and I never heard him say my gosh.
- 3:24a bad word about anybody. And what I'll say about him, he was the real deal. The real he had more integrity than anybody I've ever met.
- 3:30Well.
- 3:33That that's how did you meet him?
- 3:35We met at Est, a personal development course ~ that we were both involved~ with. And I said he is not the one.
- 3:46My my mother ~ met him and I knew him ~ from around the office.
- 3:52And my mother said, You're gonna marry him, and I went, ~ no. He wears Gucci shoes and carries his purse, and he looked like he walked with a stick up his ass.
- 4:02And he looked very serious. And he kept pursuing me.
- 4:05And I kept telling him, You're wonderful.
- 4:07I I kept telling him no. And one day he left a message on my answering machine.
- 4:12I know in those days we had that.
- 4:13He said, I know you don't want to go out with me Saturday night, Right.
- 4:18but if you did, where would I make a reservation and what time would I pick you~ I said, that deserves a date.
- 4:27~ And it was my belief that he was very serious.
- 4:32And I ~ that kept me I wanted somebody who was light and funny.
- 4:36And I kept going out with him and I kept telling him he's not the one.
- 4:40Like we'd had a great time. I really enjoyed you, but you're not the one. We'd be in bed and I would tell him he's not the one.
- 4:47Wow, that he's a very confident man he was a confident man if he could take that.
- 4:49And he would just He would just look at me and go, I got it. What do you want to do tonight?
- 4:56It was like, okay. And then one day I realized this is this is love.
- 4:57What changed?
- 5:00What changed was that he got me.
- 5:00This is it. This is love. my gosh.
- 5:03And then you were married thirty five years.
- 5:04Yeah.
- 5:05He didn't try to change my mind.
- 5:07He didn't try to enroll me. He didn't get pissed off.
- 5:11He just got it. So we'd have a great time, you know.
- 5:16Great, whatever, and we would be lying there and he'd say, What's wrong? And I'd say, Nothing.
- 5:20I just we had a great time and he'd pray and I'd say, Morty, I think you're wonderful and I love being with you, but you're not the one because I knew I knew I was the one for him.
- 5:31I didn't want to hurt him. And he said, I got it. And one day I just looked at him and I went, You are the most extraordinary human I've ever met.
- 5:39And that was it. I fell in love.
- 5:41Wow. He was like he had to drip on you like honey a little at a time until you really got it, right? That's extraordinary. Wow.
- 5:49And so I know he developed the method.
- 5:52So can can we just jump into it?
- 5:55So t how did he develop this method?
- 5:58Yeah, so in his life, he struggled.
- 6:01Everything looked like it was gonna happen and it didn't.
- 6:03And he he was brilliant.
- 6:07And he says he was on what's called a spiritual intellectual journey to Now, listen, everybody, this is very important.
- 6:16He was looking at why we know what to do and don't do it.
- 6:21We know We should exercise is a perfect podcast for this.
- 6:24We know we should exercise and eat well and will age better and we don't.
- 6:31We know we should not go into that relationship and we go in anyway.
- 6:35We know we should wear seatbelts and we don't.
- 6:38So we know.
- 6:41We know we shouldn't yell at our kids, and we do. Why do we not do things we know we should do and do things we know we shouldn't do?
- 6:50He was fascinated by this. So he's on a plane going to California to interview I won't go into that whole story, but he was journaling. And he written now, this is over 35 years, maybe 40 years ago.
- 7:04Nob when when I used to say to people, Lauren, that I'm in the belief business, people would say beliefs? You mean like religious beliefs?
- 7:13Like what do you mean? Today everybody's talking about beliefs because people now know you can't make change if you don't change your beliefs.
- 7:20It's very hard. Now you can't.
- 7:21So he got off the plane and he did the process on the people who were interviewing him for this assignment. He got it. They were blown away.
- 7:31It was how to keep people off welfare ~ in the state of California.
- 7:36And he came home and he said, I have to show you what happened on the plane.
- 7:43Now my husband was very ~ modest so he said I I downloaded it as opposed to I created it. Exactly.
- 7:51Like I channeled it. Right. Okay.
- 7:53And so He sat down and I'm gonna tell you the truth.
- 7:57I usually say it was a friend, but he sat down with his ex-wife, who was part of my family, and ~ She wanted to meet a guy and get married again.
- 8:09And she wasn't. And he said, Well, what do you believe? And she said, Well, marriage is suffocating and men are selfish.
- 8:18And, you know, she started sprouting all these beliefs.
- 8:20And I sat there and he helped her eliminate one belief.
- 8:25And I say eliminate because I mean eliminate.
- 8:27I don't mean bust them and bang them and all the stupid things people say.
- 8:30And spirit whacked me on the head and said, This is what you are here on this earth to do.
- 8:40incredible.
- 8:41And I've been doing it for almost 40 years.
- 8:43I have clients in every country around the world, including Saudi Arabia, which blows my mind.
- 8:49~ and it's yeah, That's crazy.
- 8:53Did his ex wife meet somebody?
- 8:56and there's never been a day where I am not grateful to my core.
- 9:06for that moment. Not a day.
- 9:09It it kind of just tells me everything when you said his ex-wife's my family.
- 9:12Like I you know, I get that. I get that.
- 9:15Because yeah, isn't that amazing?
- 9:16Yeah, my kids call her Aunt Orlene.
- 9:17Yeah. Yeah. ~ I love that. So let's let's kind of go into, you know, what what is a limiting belief and how do we get rid of it?
- 9:26Yeah. Awesome.
- 9:28So the first thing I want to do is make a distinction because people confuse patterns and beliefs all the time.
- 9:35And if you're trying to get rid of a pattern, you're gonna you're not. You you're gonna get rid of the beliefs.
- 9:42So a pattern is observable, okay?
- 9:45It is what is behavior that you either want to stop doing or start doing.
- 9:52Something you want and don't have or something that you don't have and you Some way that I'm gonna give you all of them.
- 9:56Like an example would be Okay.
- 9:59Pro not all of them, but I'll give you a bunch.
- 10:01So behavioral patterns are procrastination.
- 10:05I don't speak up for myself. ~ I get into crappy relationships and stay in.
- 10:13I allow people to mistreat me.
- 10:15I'm a workaholic, I'm a people pleaser.
- 10:19Those are all observable patterns. I can watch a video and see though you doing those things or not doing those things. I avoid confrontation.
- 10:30That's a behavioral pattern. Emotional patterns are depression, anxiety. you walk around feeling~ low self esteem, right?
- 10:43So ~ So those are behavioral patterns.
- 10:47Beliefs are a statement about reality that you hold as the truth.
- 10:53That's what a belief is. It's a statement about reality that you hold as the truth.
- 10:59Okay. I believe men are, life is, people, people can't be trusted.
- 11:07Okay. Now, beliefs.
- 11:09Cause our behaviors.
- 11:13So watch. If you believe people can't be trusted, are you gonna have a lot of friends?
- 11:18Close friends? No. You might work in a lab alone.
- 11:18No.
- 11:22You might do solo sports as opposed to team sports.
- 11:26You might be a terrible delegator at work because you can't trust people.
- 11:31You might think your husband's always cheating on you, even if he's not. So beliefs determine what you do, what you feel, and ultimately your reality.
- 11:40If you believe, I have never had a client who had the belief life is hard that said, but my life is easy. People who have the belief life is hard have hard lives.
- 11:50Okay. Okay, great question.
- 11:50Where do these beliefs come from?
- 11:53So we come into this world and we don't know if we're and I'm gonna tell you the five most common beliefs in a minute.
- 12:01We come into the world and we don't know if we're good enough or not.
- 12:05We don't know if money is scarce and hard to get or flows with abundance.
- 12:09We don't know if relationships work or they don't.
- 12:13We don't know anything. In fact, before you create any distinctions, they don't even exist. And that's the spiritual part of that we do at the end of the process, which is very magical. So what is the one word question every child asks all day long?
- 12:33Why, mommy? Why?
- 12:34Why?
- 12:35Why? I just had a client right before the podcast.
- 12:38I asked her that question. She didn't have kids.
- 12:40She still answered. Why? She did know.
- 12:43she did know.
- 12:44Immediately. Wasn't even a hesitation.
- 12:46So everybody knows that the one-word question that everyone asks, every child asks all day long is why.
- 12:52So we come into this world and we get.
- 12:54What's wrong with you? How many times do I have to tell you?
- 12:57Stop it. Your hands are dirty.
- 13:00Get them what you got an a you got a B?
- 13:03Why didn't you get an A?
- 13:04Oops, I might have done that one.
- 13:06We wouldn't, so there's no such thing as a perfect parent.
- 13:09So everybody listening to me, don't worry about that.
- 13:11I wasn't a perfect parent, and I tried really hard.
- 13:14Nobody's perfect. So child says, Why can't I live up to my parents' expectations?
- 13:20Well, I guess I'm not good enough.
- 13:22If parents, and again, I'm not saying this to give you guilt.
- 13:28I'm saying this because you can change it.
- 13:31And if you've done it, you can go back and clean it up.
- 13:34But if a parent is a workaholic and never around, or busy and doesn't pay attention to the kid, or says, I'm listening.
- 13:44So if those of you who are listening to the podcast, And they're scrolling on their phone.
- 13:47I'm I'm looking at my phone. How many of us look at our phones and tell our kids, yeah, I'm listening? No, you're not, and they know you're not. So what they conclude is I'm not important.
- 13:57Why? Why am I not getting attention?
- 13:59Well, I guess I'm not important, right? Now, if you travel, you can FaceTime your kid and say, tell me about your day. I don't care if you have 10 minutes on the road, that will make a difference. So I'm not good enough, I'm not important. If they struggle,~ I can't pay the bills and we have no money, and money's so hard, and we can't afford it, and you can't have it, you're gonna conclude.
- 14:22Why? Why is it well? I guess money is scarce and hard to get.
- 14:25So that's how beliefs get formed.
- 14:28Now, here's why they stay with us throughout all the personal growth work 15 years of therapy, and evidence to the contrary.
- 14:38I've worked with five Harvard PhDs who had the belief I'm stupid.
- 14:43Evidence doesn't get rid of beliefs.
- 14:44Incredible.
- 14:45Okay?
- 14:46Because if everybody closes your eye, close close your eyes and everybody take a deep breath and say out loud, if you can, I'm not good enough.
- 14:58I'm not good enough.
- 14:59Now say I'm a monkey.
- 15:01I'm a monkey.
- 15:01So when you say I'm a monkey, it feels silly.
- 15:04When you say I'm not good enough, how does that feel?
- 15:07I mean, yeah, there's like a twinge.
- 15:09It's definitely not I'm a monkey.
- 15:11I mean So for most people, Lauren, it feels crappy.
- 15:15I don't want to say it, I don't like to say it.
- 15:17Or they might say, that feels crappy because I don't believe it.
- 15:22If you didn't believe it, it would feel like I'm a monkey, it would feel like just words.
- 15:26So that's the first thing. So if you look at your childhood and you imagine being criticized or being bullied or wherever that came from, and I said to you, doesn't it feel like You saw I'm not good enough.
- 15:42You would say, Yes, I saw it. Or if your parents struggled about money, I'd say, doesn't it feel like you saw money is scarce and hard to get, or life is hard? Or if your parents fought and yelled all the time, wouldn't it feel like you saw relationships don't work?
- 15:59And everybody says yes. Now, here's the juice.
- 16:02If somebody said to you, Lauren doesn't wear glasses, what would you, for those of you who saw her, you'd say, Of yes, she does. And they'd say, No, she doesn't. You'd say, Yes, she does. I how do you know? Because I saw Lauren in glasses.
- 16:16So you believe she wears glasses and you couldn't believe.
- 16:18We believe in Santa Claus for eight years until one day we go, wait a minute.
- 16:25That's not Santa Claus. That's my dad, or that's Macy's guy, or in that moment, what happens to the belief in Santa Claus?
- 16:34goes away. It never comes back.
- 16:36It is this is important.
- 16:39It is impossible to not believe something you think you saw.
- 16:45That is why our beliefs stay with us for our whole life.
- 16:49Because you think you saw your parents acting in a certain way towards you.
- 16:52No, no. You did see your parents acting in a certain way towards you.
- 16:57That is what you saw. But you didn't see I'm not good enough.
- 17:02That was in your mind. You made that up.
- 17:04And that's how beliefs go away.
- 17:06Now, you have to know this whole bunch of steps to the process.
- 17:10You have to so we break it up by looking at alternative interpretations, and then we have a step about meaning, which I'll talk about a little later.
- 17:24Something that will change real I do have one thing you can't It's hard to get rid of beliefs on your own, and I'm gonna give you an opportunity to eliminate a belief for free.
- 17:33So I will do that, but I will teach you a tool that will change your life forever.
- 17:37~ but I want to go back to beliefs.
- 17:40The trick is you have to know what beliefs underlie the specific pattern.
- 17:47Right, so if you're a workaholic, you probably have the belief.
- 17:54I'm not good enough. I'm not important.
- 17:56But what makes me good enough or important are my achievements.
- 18:01So now I have a beach ball called I'm Not Good Enough.
- 18:05I don't want to live with like that.
- 18:06That sucks. So I have what we I create a survival strategy belief.
- 18:11So if you're a kid and you've concluded I'm not good enough, and then one day You get acknowledged for your A's or your goals, right? Scoring goals. ~ what makes me good enough is achieving things.
- 18:19Isn't it?
- 18:24Now I have to hold this beach ball called I'm not good enough underwater.
- 18:29That's workaholism. I have to keep doing it and doing it and doing it because guess what? Your achievements don't make you good enough.
- 18:36If you're the oldest of ten in a Catholic or any other family, you probably have the belief what makes me good enough is taking care of people, because that's what you got acknowledged for.
- 18:48So now we have what makes me good enough is taking care of people.
- 18:52Or the way to get love is to take care of people.
- 18:55Now I'm holding the beach ball underwater.
- 18:57And if you're listening, I have my fist in front of my face.
- 19:01That's I'm not good enough. And my hand is on top of the fist, and I'm holding the beach ball underwater, right?
- 19:08So now I become a caretaker and I become a nurse and I have to keep taking care of people and I take care of the whole family and everybody depends on me because I have to now keep I'm not good enough underwater.
- 19:19So what we do is we get rid of the core belief and then we get rid of the survival strategy belief beliefs.
- 19:26Survival strategies are driven.
- 19:28And I'm gonna tell you the one that changed my life.
- 19:31In one minute, I was a Completely different person.
- 19:34You ready?
- 19:35Yeah.
- 19:36What makes me good enough I'm none of you will relate to this.
- 19:39What makes me good enough is having other people think well of me.
- 19:43Course.
- 19:44I used to walk away from people going, Did I say the right thing? Did I wear the right thing?
- 19:47Sure. I'd call my friends, what are you wearing to the party?
- 19:50You wearing jeans? Are you getting dressed up?
- 19:51And God forbid I should wear what I wanted to wear.
- 19:54my shoes and bag match in those days?
- 19:56So my mother.
- 20:03Loved me more than anything in the world.
- 20:05She was an angel from heaven. I was blessed beyond words.
- 20:09She did two things.
- 20:12She did everything for me. So I concluded I'm not capable.
- 20:15And even though I lived alone in New York City for seven years, traveled the world, I did a lot of things that came naturally to me.
- 20:25I was very lucky in that way.
- 20:27But if something was hard, I staffed it out.
- 20:30I asked a friend. I didn't make Halloween, I didn't know how to sew. So my girlfriend made Halloween costumes.
- 20:35I had a belief I'm not creative.
- 20:37So I asked other people to do things for me.
- 20:39So that was the one thing she did.
- 20:41So you don't have to have parents who are terrible.
- 20:44And the other thing was, you were invited to the party?
- 20:48You weren't invited? ~ my.
- 20:52God, I come from Brooklyn. ~ my God.
- 20:55I'm from Queens. Yeah, And I had a very Jewish mother.
- 20:59And she would say, You weren't invited?
- 21:00same.
- 21:02Jill didn't call. She left without you.
- 21:05You know, ~ you're you were invited into the sorority.
- 21:10you're popular. All she cared about was that I was loved, included, and invited.
- 21:16So I had the belief what makes me good enough is having other people think well of me. When I got rid of that belief, I became my authentic self.
- 21:28And when I spoke in front of 600 people in Croatia, I knew I'm not everybody's cup of tea.
- 21:35I have clients who love me because I tell them, you want to talk? Go to therapy.
- 21:40This ain't talking. This is do the process.
- 21:43You know, but they're locked.
- 21:46Let's get to it.
- 21:47That's what I love. Who wants to spend fifteen years talking when Hello, but there are people you could just yeah, get rid of it?
- 21:53who want to call and tell me stories.
- 21:56And no, no, you just have to hear this.
- 21:58Or let me let me just tell you one more thing.
- 22:00I don't need it. I have the inform and I'm loving and I'm soft and I'm gentle.
- 22:04I'm not soft, but I'm gentle. But there are clients who love me, Yeah.
- 22:09and there are people, Lauren, who wouldn't want to work with me if I paid them.
- 22:14I am not everybody's cup of tea.
- 22:16That's for everybody. Yeah.
- 22:17But I will change your life.
- 22:19Right. And some people love the fact that I'm friendly.
- 22:23I walk into pickleball. I know everybody's name.
- 22:25I say hello to everybody. And some people, most people there love me. And there's somebody, I'm sure, who goes, Who is this woman?
- 22:33Or, you know, why is she so friendly?
- 22:35Or who knows what? But that's okay.
- 22:37Now, it doesn't mean I don't care.
- 22:40Most of the time I don't, but that's not the point.
- 22:43The point is, and listen everybody, this is so good. I no longer define myself based on what other people think.
- 22:53That's the freedom.
- 22:54That is freedom. That is freedom.
- 22:56And so okay, so we have a belief that's in the past, and then we give that belief meaning, right? No.
- 23:05No, we give events meaning. So let's talk about meaning.
- 23:08we give events meaning. Okay. Okay, Okay. So I'm gonna make a statement.
- 23:11let's talk about meaning.
- 23:13Very, very, very important statement.
- 23:18All of your emotions come from the meaning you give events.
- 23:26Your husband comes home, doesn't kiss you, hello. Or your boyfriend comes home, doesn't kiss you, hello. ~ he doesn't love me anymore.
- 23:32He's having an affair.
- 23:33You're gonna feel bad. If you give it the meaning he had a hard day, you might feel compassion. If you don't give it any meaning, he just doesn't kiss me hello when he comes home, doesn't mean anything, you will feel nothing.
- 23:48So, you ready?
- 23:51Some of you may know this, most of you will have your minds blown.
- 23:55So on everybody to do this with me.
- 23:57Somebody comes into a room that you know and doesn't say hello to you, what might you automatically think?
- 24:05I mean, I'm just gonna play along 'cause I'm not I'm not the person that feeds into Yeah, yeah. Right.
- 24:09that. But yeah, like ~ she's mad at me or you know Right, but you can y you could say something if you would it wasn't about saying something bad.
- 24:19It's you could say, they're distracted, or they're shy, or they're rude, Mm-hmm. Right. Right.
- 24:26or they're anything. But whatever you said is meaning.
- 24:30Where did that meaning come from?
- 24:32So you said they're they're Guess it's just something I made up in my head.
- 24:35Awesome. All meaning comes from your head, your mind.
- 24:40If meaning is in your mind, in your inside your head, do events have inherent meaning?
- 24:49No, based on what you just said.
- 24:50No. Yeah. What well no, Well, based on what I just said or no?
- 24:53That's fire. Yeah.
- 24:54they don't. Because you're you're saying it comes from your head.
- 24:59Or wait, say that again. I got confused.
- 25:00I'm not I'm not saying anything.
- 25:01Okay, wait, s say it again. Ask me again.
- 25:02You're saying it. Okay. All all meaning comes from in from your mind.
- 25:08If meaning is in your mind, do events have meaning?
- 25:13That's a good one.
- 25:13Events have yeah, events have consequences.
- 25:17So I have a million examples, but this is my favorite.
- 25:21Cause it makes the point. My husband and then I'll give you the ones that everybody gives me. Yeah, buts. I love yeah butts.
- 25:27~ My husband died. We're married 35 years, and just like Lauren's, if you saw her episode with her husband, delicious love, you know, really strong relationship.
- 25:37Real thing.
- 25:38When he died, I was crushed.
- 25:41I was devastated. Okay. Grieving is healthy, and I grieved. Not getting out of bed is not healthy.
- 25:52And I'm not doing that because I came to this world to have fun.
- 25:55So I used this technique every day, and it got me out of bed. And here's the point.
- 26:01The fact that Morty died matters to me.
- 26:05It's horrible. My kids lost their father, and he was the best father that was ever put on the planet.
- 26:11But the fact that he died.
- 26:15Doesn't mean I'm first first meaning I'm gonna starve to death.
- 26:22I don't know how to run a business.
- 26:24He left you a business.
- 26:24I never wanted to huh?
- 26:26He left you a business to run.
- 26:28He left me a business to run and I tripled it.
- 26:30So the fact that I didn't know how to run a business didn't mean I wouldn't be able to. Next day, I don't want to get out of bed.
- 26:38What happened? Morty died. What meaning did I give it?
- 26:41I'm gonna be alone for the rest of my life.
- 26:43I'll never have fun again. Well, it could mean that, and it could mean you're gonna have a second act, and it could mean which I haven't found yet, but I will. Yes, Are you looking?
- 26:55I don't know.
- 26:55Kind of. ~ yes.
- 26:56If anybody's listening, if anybody's Yes, I'm looking, but I'm not doing anything because I have a very busy life.
- 27:01But I found pickleball. I play pickleball seven days a week, pretty much, either days or nights.
- 27:06And that's my joy and my, you know, I have friends, I go out, I have a life, right? So the fact that he died doesn't mean anything.
- 27:17That is to say, we don't know anything for sure because.
- 27:22Something happens.
- 27:23That's what meaning is. People say, It's the meaning. The meaning you assign it.
- 27:26well, what about what about getting married?
- 27:28Well, if you get married, that doesn't mean you're gonna live happily ever after.
- 27:34It doesn't mean you're not gonna live happy.
- 27:37It doesn't mean we don't know anything for sure other than you're married, right? 9 11. What about 9 11?
- 27:44That does not mean all Arabs are bad or Muslims are bad or flying is dangerous or tall buildings are.
- 27:51Events have no meaning, but they may have consequences.
- 27:55Now, the meaning you give events generally come from your beliefs.
- 28:01So if you believe~ people can't be trusted. And you see your two friends talking, but their heads are down a little bit.
- 28:10The meaning you're gonna give it is,~ they're talking about me.
- 28:13Or something like that. If you believe I'll never get what I want, you probably won't ask. And you'll every time you don't, you give it the meaning, see, I'm I knew I would never get what I want.
- 28:27So anything So it's the meaning you give it. Give the events.
- 28:29Give the events.
- 28:32So if you want to get, so beliefs are formed in the past, meaning is formed in the moment.
- 28:38If you want to get rid of, you want you want your change to be effortless, right? I had a client yesterday who got rid of a whole bunch of beliefs about not being able to get what she wanted and speaking up.
- 28:52And she came into the session,~ that was last week, and she came into the session yesterday, and she's just like, my God, I told my husband you can't talk to me that way, and I did this and I did that, and it was just.
- 29:04Half the time people say to me, Well, I don't know if I saw much change.
- 29:07And then I tell them what they worked on, and they go, my God, the change was so natural, I didn't even realize it. That is getting rid of beliefs.
- 29:15If you want to get rid of meaning, I'm sorry, sorry, if you want to get rid of feelings, anytime you have a negative emotion, and by a negative emotion for all you new age people.
- 29:28Why's a negative emotion? A negative emotion is an emotion you don't want.
- 29:33I don't want to walk around depressed, anxious, sad. I have no interest.
- 29:37I'll feel those feelings and then do this process and get rid of them because I don't wanna. If you want to, knock yourself out. But if you don't, what happened? What meaning did I give what just happened?
- 29:51Come up with one other possible meaning.
- 29:53And then get that the event has no meaning.
- 29:56We don't know anything for sure because that thing happened.
- 30:00Yeah. That reminds me of that the book The Four Agreements where don't don't take anything personally. You know, that no, you're making a face.
- 30:08To because you don't know I guess what I'm getting at is I try not~ to take anything personally because I don't know what the meaning is, or you know, you don't know for sure.
- 30:21So is that not the same thing then?
- 30:21Yes. It it yes.
- 30:23Kind of or And i it it's like saying, when I ask people, can events that have no meaning make you feel anything?
- 30:34And they say, only if I let them.
- 30:36You can't let an event that has no meaning make you feel anything.
- 30:40It it's just impossible. So this is the same, it's like, don't take it personally, okay.
- 30:46I I just don't think it's It's accurate but not doable because you're going to give it meaning.
- 30:51The give the events, not it. I hate the word it.
- 30:52Mm.
- 30:54You're going to give the events meaning.
- 30:56And the only way to not take it personally is to not give the events meaning.
- 31:01And if that's what he means, that's great, Okay.
- 31:04but that's not what he's saying.
- 31:05So if I say to you, don't take it personally, Okay.
- 31:08or if I say to you, Yeah.
- 31:10What meaning do the events have?
- 31:12The one is useful, the other's not useful.
- 31:15Yes, you're right.
- 31:15That's all.
- 31:16That's true because don't take it personally.
- 31:18You're pretty much gonna take it personally.
- 31:21So how do you get rid of a negative emotion?
- 31:23So, what you do is you write as you have the negative emotion, you start to feel anxious. You're going to make a presentation.
- 31:32Or now, if you make a presentation and you have a fear of public speaking, that's the only pattern that has the same beliefs for every person.
- 31:41So there's like 10 beliefs that cause a fear of public speaking.
- 31:46You get rid of those beliefs, you won't have the fear.
- 31:49But if you feel anxious, you say, what happened? I'm gonna speak in public.
- 31:53What meaning am I gonna what meaning am I giving it, giving the fact that I'm gonna speak?
- 31:58I'm gonna be judged. Well, what does it mean that I'm gonna be judged?
- 32:02I'm not good enough. Well, it could mean you're not good enough, and it could mean that some people will like you and some people won't like you, right? So anytime you have a negative emotion, stop and ask yourself, what happened?
- 32:14What meaning did I give what happened?
- 32:16And if you really want a shortcut, all you have to do is get that the meaning's in your head.
- 32:21It's not in the events. And the emotion will go away.
- 32:24I'd like to come up with one other interpretation because it breaks it up for But I want to go back to, so that's the gift I have.
- 32:31That's one of the two gifts. You will it stops.
- 32:34My my husband did a TEDx talk called How to Stop Suffering, where he teaches this.
- 32:38I watched it. It was great. Uh-huh. Yes.
- 32:39you did, wasn't it great? Did you like the cups?
- 32:41The cups?
- 32:44The glasses.
- 32:45~ the Yes, Where I leave the glasses all over the house.
- 32:48that you left your glasses all over the house.
- 32:50Yes, it got me thinking 'cause yeah, everybody has that in their relationship, right? It's a little things that, you know, okay. My husb yeah.
- 32:56Yeah. But he was giving it the meaning I expected him to clean up after me.
- 33:02I never expected that. I just left him.
- 33:05I left glasses.
- 33:06He said that Shelley uses like ten glasses every time she gets a drink, she gets a fresh cup and leaves them all over the house.
- 33:12And he gave it the meaning that she he expected she expected him to clean up after her, which was not true.
- 33:18Right, right.
- 33:19Yeah.
- 33:19So now I want to go back if I may to the most common beliefs that people have.
- 33:24Please.
- 33:25So the five most common beliefs.
- 33:27And I knew I could have written a book.
- 33:32I literally taught classes on this.
- 33:36Mistakes and failures are bad.
- 33:37I could give you every famous quote, Michael Jordan, Richard Branson, all of them. I still had the belief until I got rid of it.
- 33:46That mistakes and failures were bad.
- 33:47Until I got rid of it, and that was a life changer.
- 33:50Mistakes and failures are bad.
- 33:52If I make a mistake or fail, I'll be rejected.
- 33:56I'm not good enough. I'm not important.
- 33:58And what makes me important is having other people think well of me.
- 34:03Because if you aren't worried about what other people thought, think about how your life would be different.
- 34:09What about I'm not lovable? That's not a top one?
- 34:12Or is that I'm not good enough?
- 34:12It's not it's not only not a top one, it is the one it's funny, I don't know why, but it is the one b we have a program called Natural Confidence for people who don't want to or can't afford to do private sessions, and it's two hundred dollars and it's nineteen self-esteem beliefs, and you go through with a video with Morty or me.
- 34:36And I'm not lovable is the only belief that's not on there.
- 34:42And I don't know why, but I will tell you.
- 34:44When I tell people to say a belief out loud, sometimes they cry, sometimes they don't.
- 34:48Mostly they don't. It just feels shitty, or they'll look at me like, I don't want to say that.
- 34:53Please don't make me say that.
- 34:54With I'm not lovable, and the belief, there's another belief. It's I'm not worth loving.
- 35:00That's the big one.
- 35:01I'm not worth loving. When I ask people to say that out loud, they either start crying, they can't say it, or they look at me like I'd rather rip my nails off and bleed than say those words.
- 35:15That's how intense that belief is.
- 35:17It's really interesting. It's the only belief that has that.
- 35:18Yeah.
- 35:20'Cause mhm I n I know somebody with that belief and it's it rules her life.
- 35:26It rules her life. Yeah, she needs to come see you.
- 35:27And I'll tell you, I'll yeah, I'll tell you a a wonderful, wonderful story about that belief.
- 35:34Because I want you, for those of you who had parents who were not affectionate or love, you know, loving, or so I had a client who had the belief I'm not worth loving and I'm not lovable. And where he got it from was when he was little and he would run to his mother to hug her.
- 35:54She would go like this. So, for those of you listening, I'm pushing my hands away. But like imagine pushing a child away.
- 36:02And that's what she used to do.
- 36:04So ~ I'm gonna cry because I always cry when I tell the story.
- 36:08Maybe I won't now. So he gets rid of the belief.
- 36:13And he goes to his mother's house and he rings the bell and she opens the door and he goes to hug her and she goes like that.
- 36:20She pushes, you know, and not in a mean way, I'm not pushing my just like a little gentle pushing away, like, right?
- 36:29But this time he says, no, no, no, no, no, and he gives her a big The next night he goes to her house, he rings the bell, she opens the door, he goes to hug her, she goes like this and pushes him away, and he says no, no, no, no, no, and he gives her a big The next night he goes to her house, he rings the bell, she opens the door, and she hugged him.
- 36:58Why?
- 36:59Because she knew she wasn't gonna get rejected.
- 37:05What?
- 37:05It was her belief I'm not lovable.
- 37:10I'm not worth loving.
- 37:13If I don't push people away, they'll push me away first.
- 37:17That's so sad.
- 37:17It was her fear of rejection. It wasn't about him.
- 37:23Wow.
- 37:23That's what's so powerful about belief.
- 37:25Mm-hmm.
- 37:26It's crazy. So, you know, I mean that's that's an incredible story about beliefs and dissolving them, but I I there was something in your I I heard one interview with you and it was talking about raising children.
- 37:41This reminds me because you know you're talking about raising this little child and pushing them away. But you know, you you had the knowledge to raise your children with~ I know you would say like ~ learning opportunity instead of, you know, you made a mistake or whatever.
- 37:59And so instead so you just had all this knowledge to raise your children better.
- 38:05Well like the example that made me shudder a little with you know, when you got to like, ~ you got a B, you could have gotten an A. Well, They weren't.
- 38:14we used to say that to one of our kids because this kid's so smart, she'd never pop a book and without popping a book she made straight B's. Well if she would have just opened up we're like if you just open a book, you could have an A. So I know the answer to this now from listening to you, but can you kind of share so instead of harping on your kids, what would be a better way to encourage them or get them Fine.
- 38:36So first of all, parenting is my passion.
- 38:39I could talk for seven hours without taking a breath.
- 38:43So in the few minutes we have left, I will answer that question. So I have a parenting course, Yeah.
- 38:50right? It's called Empowering the Next Generation.
- 38:53I don't want our kids to have the beliefs that we had, right? So there's eight hours.
- 38:58Well, the first One the first hour is about how beliefs get formed and all that.
- 39:02The second to the seventh hour are all skills and tools.
- 39:07So I can't tell you how to do that in two minutes, but I'll give you an example with this, because this is important. Everybody, I work with nothing but people who got straight A's in school, who are depressed, miserable, unhappy, and dysfunctional. So This idea that my kid has to get all A's.
- 39:25I ask parents, do you excel at everything?
- 39:28Right. No. Of course.
- 39:29Nobody has ever said yes to that question. Nobody excels at everything.
- 39:33Why would you expect your kid to?
- 39:35It's so ridiculous. Why do they need to get an A?
- 39:40It it's insane. And we I am so sick of hearing I'm not good enough.
- 39:46Where did that come from? And A's and A's and it's like, why? A B do you know that when my my d my kids went to an alternative school with no grades?
- 39:54'Cause I didn't want to have all this conversation.
- 39:56Hm.
- 39:58~ yeah, for nine years.
- 39:59~ smart. ~ But then my daughter went to a regular high school for one year and then she went to an alternative high school.
- 40:06The first day orientation, parent orientation. And I'll never forget it as long as I live.
- 40:14The dean or whoever was doing the meeting, the admit what the high school I think was the high school dean.
- 40:19He said, let me tell you something.
- 40:20A B is a good grade.
- 40:22It's a good grade. A C means they need support.
- 40:23It is.
- 40:27A D means something's not working.
- 40:31And an F is we have some questions.
- 40:34So the first thing I had ~ listen to me, everyone, I'm gonna tell you this one thing.
- 40:39I had a video. I was on a podcast, and the guy, you know, podcasters make clips and they post the clips.
- 40:44Mm-hmm.
- 40:45So ~ It was wisdom plus wellness, or wellness plus wisdom, I don't know, whatever it is. And he posts this clip from the podcast.
- 40:53It got one million three hundred thousand views.
- 40:58What was a clip?
- 40:58I think 700 million people forwarded it.
- 41:02It was just like and you know, people are like they take courses on how to get viral.
- 41:07I was just watching this thing going, are you kidding me? And here's what the clip was.
- 41:11What was the clip?
- 41:12Okay, you ready? Here's the clip.
- 41:15Never ask the question, why?
- 41:19Why is meaning and meaning is made up?
- 41:24Are you talking about with your kids?
- 41:25Or with any b anybody?
- 41:26Ever but let's start with your kids. Yes, with your kids. But it's it's mostly So never ask the question why.
- 41:34or usually every always. Even if you knew why, why is that powerful? It's like, I'm~ I'm frigid because I was molested as a kid.
- 41:48Now what?
- 41:48Why is not powerful? You ask a kid, why don't you want to go to school?
- 41:52I don't know. Why don't you like school?
- 41:54I don't know. Why anything? I don't know.
- 41:56But if you ask your child, what is happening at school that has you not want to go? Guess what my client found out?
- 42:06Her kid was being molested at school.
- 42:07What? At school? my gosh.
- 42:11But she didn't. Why don't you want to go to school?
- 42:12Okay.
- 42:15I don't know. Why don't you like school?
- 42:16Mm-hmm.
- 42:17I don't know. What is it about school?
- 42:18What is happening school?
- 42:19What I once had I I won't go into the whole story 'cause it's my speaking on parenting story, but I'm a crazy person about brushing teeth 'cause I had to have all my teeth capped 'cause I didn't floss and brush long enough.
- 42:33And I was almost forcing my daughter to brush her teeth.
- 42:36And a little voice in my head said, which is what I teach, at what cost?
- 42:40If she concludes I'm powerless, I don't want her to brush her teeth.
- 42:44So I backed away and I said, I'm not gonna force you, but I have a question. And I said to her, If you don't fli if you don't brush your teeth, you're gonna be talking like this, and you're gonna have no teeth on your mouth.
- 42:54But I said to her, What is it about?
- 42:57brushing your teeth that you don't like.
- 43:00And she looks at me and she goes, and she was little, she was maybe I don't think she was three.
- 43:05And she looks at me and she goes, The toothbrush hurts my gums.
- 43:09Bam we'll get a softer one. I don't like the taste of the toothpaste.
- 43:12Mm-hmm.
- 43:14Bam, we'll get a different one.
- 43:16What is a powerful question?
- 43:16Yeah.
- 43:18Is it?
- 43:20Why is not?
- 43:21You're absolutely right about that.
- 43:23And the other thing that I think that I took away from listening to you about parenting was consequences.
- 43:29So instead of me saying to my kid, you know, why if you would just pop a book, you could have an A, like that doesn't really matter.
- 43:37You're right. ~ but I could have maybe said something like, Well, I don't even know how to frame it,'cause she was plenty smart and it didn't really matter.
- 43:47But you know, you want your kids to think about consequences.
- 43:49What might the consequence be? Here's the thing.
- 43:51happen if you d if you don't study.
- 43:53I told this is the single best thing I ever told my kids.
- 43:58No matter what you going back to the belief, what makes me good enough is having other people think well of me.
- 44:03I told my kids, no matter what you do, somebody's not gonna like it. So you may as well do what you want.
- 44:10However, Mm-hmm.
- 44:12Before you do anything, stop and ask yourself, what might the consequences of my actions be?
- 44:21And do I want to live with those consequences?
- 44:24If I have unprotected sex, it's not bad and wrong.
- 44:27You just might get pregnant or get an STD or a bad reputation, right? It's not value judgments.
- 44:33If you get rid of the words good, bad, right, wrong, you'll be a better parent.
- 44:37Mm-hmm. That's exactly right.
- 44:38It's what?
- 44:39Asked what might the consequence be?
- 44:42Consequence.
- 44:43Or if they do something and there is a consequence, you can ask them, What happened?
- 44:49My daughter lied. In my house, you don't lie. Anything but lying.
- 44:55And my husband said, Britt, what were you thinking?
- 44:58And she said, And she told us she she said parents would be home and the parents weren't home.
- 45:03There was a twenty seven year old sister home.
- 45:05And we found out, and and he said, How do you feel about it? And she said, Well, I feel sleazy. And he said, How come? And she said, you know, what is it that makes you feel sleazy?
- 45:15And she said, You always treat me with dignity and respect.
- 45:20We told our kids, don't treat us with dignity and respect because we're your parents. That's how you treat people.
- 45:25We'll treat you that way, you treat us that way.
- 45:28Right? You can say, I hate you, but you can't say, Go fuck yourself.
- 45:32That's not okay. Right. So so, Right. Yes.
- 45:36and I'll tell you a very, very, very powerful story in a minute.
- 45:40So he said, What'd you learn? And she said, I learned that lying feels sleazy.
- 45:44And he said, Was it worth it? She said, No, because it really could hurt our relationship.
- 45:49We taught her, if you don't have trust, you don't have anything.
- 45:51So he said, Great. That is so you're gonna lie again?
- 45:54She said, No. He said, Great, let's go see the Matrix.
- 45:57That was it. She was giv That's great. That's it. And how did your how did your kids turn out?
- 46:02You have grown kids. Are they amazing?
- 46:04~ my God. So gonna tell you one thing.
- 46:07I'll tell you one thing about my girls.
- 46:08So I I wanna give you this if there are is your audience a lot of parents?
- 46:14think parents with probably I mean, I'm gonna say parents with older kids, maybe high school and grown.
- 46:19High school. Okay. So my daughter walks in.
- 46:22We just moved from Connecticut to California.
- 46:24She's 14 years old. She walks in the house.
- 46:27You could see something happen.
- 46:28She said something. My husband said something.
- 46:30She said something. He said something.
- 46:32She goes, my God, you're being such a dick.
- 46:34And I just went, like, are you kidding?
- 46:37Him? Him? She walks to her room.
- 46:40She slams the door. He looks at me, he says, Shell. It's a word.
- 46:43He goes to the door, he says, I hear a teenager who loves her father and is not in touch with it at this moment.
- 46:50Aww Wow She throw, she throws her shoe at the door.
- 46:53She comes out, she goes, my God, Daddy, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I talked to you that way.
- 46:58I'm so sorry. I love you. I love you.
- 46:59I'm so sorry. He goes, It's okay.
- 47:01She said, I had the worst day in my life.
- 47:03He said, I figured. For you to say that to me, I figured. From that day to the day he died, they never had another fight. She said to me, Wow, ~ my god.
- 47:13in that moment, mom, I knew there was nothing I could do that would have him not love me.
- 47:17I wanna make sure my audience gets the getting rid of the the limiting beliefs.
- 47:22Can you just walk us fast through the steps again, just to reiterate?
- 47:25Yes. And here's the thing. If you go to my Instagram and you can go to at Shelly Lefco yeah, tell us.
- 47:32and just write Lauren27, I will send you an a link to eliminate a belief for free.
- 47:42Okay. A hundred percent. Just go do it.
- 47:45You'll get three beliefs, one of which you will have.
- 47:48And ~ Okay, so go to your Instagram.
- 47:52I'll put this in the show notes.
- 47:53Shelly at Shelley Lefco put in the put in the comments.
- 47:53Right.
- 47:56Lauren twenty seven Warren 27.
- 48:00And ~ and I'll send you a link, but here are the steps.
- 48:03Okay.
- 48:04You're gonna start with what do wanna change?
- 48:06Then you have to find the belief.
- 48:08But here's how you eliminate a belief.
- 48:09Where did the belief come from?
- 48:12What's the source?
- 48:13So what happened, right? What's another interpretation of the same events other than what you concluded?
- 48:22Okay. If there are other interpretations, is what you said, the truth, or one interpretation?
- 48:30It's one interpretation. But doesn't it seem like you saw that?
- 48:35It does. Did you ever see?
- 48:38That belief in the world. And remember, anything you can see has a color, shape, and location.
- 48:45We didn't say that before.
- 48:46cannot see beliefs. I didn't say that.
- 48:48Very important. Look around you.
- 48:49No, that's important. I knew we were missing something.
- 48:50Look around you. Anything you can see in your room, I knew there was a missing link.
- 48:56wherever you are, has a color, shape, and location. Anything.
- 48:59And if anybody thinks that's not true, I promise it is. You can't see your dreams, you can't see air, you can't whatever, right? So anything you could see has a color, shape, and location.
- 49:11Did you ever see the belief? And then the next question is, what did you see? And the answer is always I saw, you can't see people. People is seven billion.
- 49:24Because everybody says I saw people.
- 49:26No, you didn't. You saw your mother or your father or your teacher or kids bullying you. You saw events.
- 49:35That's all you see. Events.
- 49:38Yeah?
- 49:39Where was your belief in your mind?
- 49:42I made it up.
- 49:42What does it really mean? Sorry.
- 49:45Doesn't it seem like the events made you feel your belief?
- 49:49Events that have no meaning cannot make you feel anything.
- 49:52So what did the meaning you gave the events?
- 49:56Then you close your eyes and you imagine giving the same events different meaning.
- 50:00Imagine thinking, my parents are dysfunctional, had nothing to do with me. If I had said that as a kid, I would have never felt.
- 50:06Not good enough.
- 50:07And then I take them into the creator space, which is magical.
- 50:12That's okay. Yes. We were I knew we were missing some little nugget there and it was that you you couldn't see that.
- 50:19Okay. Thank you, Shelly. You are you are magical.
- 50:23I just adore you.
- 50:24I am so happy to be here, Lauren.
- 50:27I mean, I saw some of the guests you've had and very impressive.
- 50:31And everybody listening, if you love Lauren like I do, you should give her a five star review on Apple Podcasts because it really makes a difference. ~ and we want to get her wonderful podcast out into the world.
- 50:46So I'm gonna go do that.
- 50:46Thank you, Shelly.
- 50:50What?