"Iceberg beliefs"—self-limiting, below-the-surface doubts—could be major obstacles to your success. Here's how to overcome them.GWEN MORAN 04.11.16 

Sometimes the biggest thing holding you back from greater success is something you might not even be aware of...

CHECK YOUR LANGUAGE

A big warning sign that you have an iceberg is when you say things like, "That’s impossible" or "I have to," says mental toughness consultant Andrew D. Wittman, PhD and the author of Ground Zero Leadership: CEO of You. When you’re feeling fear or resistance about something, it could be a sign that you have an underlying belief that is triggering those reactions.

SUSPEND DISBELIEF

Your icebergs may have been formed when you were a child, so they could be pretty well-entrenched and hard to shake, Wittman says. But once you find them, you need to give them a rest, even for brief periods, by suspending your disbelief that you can get beyond them. If that sounds impossible, you need to think again—you do it when you get lost in a movie or other experience that you know is not real, he says. Once you’ve silenced the belief, ask yourself how you can do the thing that you want to do but feel you can’t.

"If you say, ‘How would I?’ your brain will go to work and find all the information that would back that up, and so that puts you in the position of where you can, or at least you can find the solution to, whatever you're facing," Wittman says.