Untether Your Potential: How to Break Free from Limiting Beliefs with the Invisible Tethers Model

What’s stopping you isn’t the rope. It’s the memory of being tied.

The Restrained Elephant

There’s an old parable about a circus elephant that gets chained to a post as a baby. No matter how hard it pulls, it can’t break free.

Eventually, it stops trying.

Years later, the elephant is full-grown and fully capable of ripping trees from the ground. Yet it remains tied to a tiny rope and a flimsy stake. Not because it can’t break free… but because it no longer believes it can.

That story hits differently as an adult.

Because we’re all carrying around invisible tethers and limiting beliefs that were formed in moments of vulnerability, rejection, fear, or failure.

→ “I’m not a morning person.”

→ “I’ve never been consistent.”

→ “I’m bad at relationships.”

→ “I’m not cut out to lead.”

→ “I always burn out.”

These aren’t facts.

They’re memories mistaken for truths.

Often childhood ropes, tied to adult minds.

What Changed for Me

A few years ago, I found myself avoiding a big opportunity. I had the skills, the experience, and the resources, yet I kept stalling.

Then it hit me.

Back when I was younger, I had failed hard at something quite similar. That version of me didn’t have the tools yet. He wasn’t ready. And I had unconsciously frozen that moment in amber and labeled it “who I am.”

But I wasn’t that person anymore.

And the rope? It wasn’t tied to anything.

When I moved forward anyway, the fear didn’t disappear, but my agency came back.

Break the Rope: A 3-Step Untethering Process

Here’s how to identify and challenge the invisible tethers that are holding you back:

1. Name the rope

Ask: Where in my life am I holding back? Not because I can’t, but because I assume I’ll fail?

Look for the sentence that starts with: “I’m just not someone who…”

That’s your rope.

2. Trace the tether

Ask: Where did I first learn this?

Was it from a past experience, a parent, a boss, a friend, a coach?

Get specific. Knowing where the belief came from often reveals that it’s outdated or based on someone else’s limitation - not yours.

3. Test the stake

Do one small action that proves the old belief false.

Wake up 30 minutes earlier. Have the hard conversation. Apply for the opportunity. Go on the run. Pitch the idea.

Don’t wait to feel “ready.” The rope will always feel real until you test it.

Build a Container

I often hear a framework like this and don't know quite where to start.

I've done the above in a 21 day window, one step for each week.

Those three weeks could change your life.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

-William Shakespeare

This isn’t about pretending you have no fear.

It’s about asking: Is this fear based in truth, or is it just a rope I never untied?

Pull the rope.

You might be free already.

Find your next edge,

Eli