Championship football coach Nick Saban often asks his team an odd question: how big is your frying pan?
Coach Saban is referencing an experience he had once while fishing. He wasn’t getting any bites, yet another angler just upstream was pulling in fish after fish.
Saban noticed he was releasing the big fish and keeping the small ones.
Curious as to what was going on, he approached the angler asked him why he was only keeping the smallest fish. The angler replied with a straightforward explanation: he only had a nine-inch frying pan at home.
A lightbulb went off for Saban. He realized many of the players he coaches have a limited capacity for success because of the beliefs they hold.
Self-limiting beliefs keep us from accomplishing all we can. For Coach Saban, the question, “How big is your frying pan?” reminds his players that they have to jettison beliefs that prohibit their complete success.
Don’t let what you believe get in your way of success. Ask yourself what beliefs you have that are standing in your way, stopping you from full achievement. Any self-belief that hinders your performance needs to be overcome. Self-imposed limitations are a forced error only we can make.
