Deprogramming Limiting Beliefs
In my first year of the undergrad program in Mathematics, back in 2005, I heard one of my professors saying that anyone who was able to learn math and programming would find great career opportunities because that was going to be the future.
I knew very little math and no programming at that time, so I didn't really understand what he was talking about. But that statement stuck in my head.
Throughout my undergraduate program, I learned a lot of math. Not so much programming though. I had a good professor and brilliant colleagues willing to help me, but for some reason, I developed this limiting belief that "my brain was not wired to think like a computer."
It was not until the second year of my Ph.D. program, 10 years later, that I began to change that belief. I was now a student in one of the most prestigious departments of industrial and systems engineering in the world (still suffering a lot of imposter syndrome), seeing my colleagues solving real-world problems with math and computers, and starting to make sense of what that professor said back in 2005.
About that time, I shifted from Matlab to Python and started to learn Gurobi. Soon after, I was solving my first real-world problems, which gave me reasons to continue challenging my limiting belief about being a computer programmer, and even a bit of regret for letting that limiting belief stick with me for such a long time.
Around the same time, I started to learn more about limiting and empowering beliefs by reading the book Awaken the Giant Within, by Tony Robbins. With that came the realization that I didn't have one, but several limiting beliefs that had been stuck with me for many years.
As Tonny Robbins explains it, these beliefs get built unconsciously, and they can remain at the back of our minds even if they don't make sense at all. What did it even mean to say that "my brain was not wired to think like a computer"?
Today, one of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford:
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right.
I remind myself of this quote every time I feel that I'm sabotaging myself by not following through on achieving my goals because of irrational fears.
Now, in addition to considering myself a professional programmer, I strongly believe that I can help many others become professional programmers (and scientists) and make impactful and meaningful contributions too.
Reviewing and challenging our own beliefs is, therefore, a great start to live a more conscious and fulfilling life.