We all fall into specific patterns of thought. Some are helpful, but many are destructive, and when we’re in them, we can’t see it. When self-doubt, fears of failure, fears of success, and other limiting beliefs frame our reality, they guide our experiences and become self-fulfilling. Generally, you’ll remain trapped by your mental machinery until someone points out what you’re doing.
An analogy is a fish in a fishbowl. They’re surrounded by water. They breathe it. It flows through them. And yet, they can only really appreciate it when they inadvertently jump out of the bowl and onto the table. At that moment, an external perspective they had no appreciation for radically changes the nature of their reality.