The article below builds upon Maltz, Maxwell (2015). Psycho-Cybernetics: updated and expanded. Penguin and expands upon a book summary by performance coach Dean Bokhari. Image by Freepik.
Self-image
Human beings always act and feel in accordance with what they imagine to be true about themselves and their environment. Whether we realize it or not, each of us carries with us a mental blueprint or picture of ourselves. It has been built up from our own beliefs about ourselves. But most of these beliefs about ourselves have unconsciously been formed from our past experiences, our success and failures, our humiliations, our triumphs, and the way other people have reacted to us, especially in early childhood.
The advantage of self-image over willpower and positive thinking
Many people’s attempts at changing their self-image are external, as witnessed by Dr. Maxwell Maltz in his plastic surgery practice. Others have tried positive thinking about the future, or the application of willpower. But these actions don’t belong to the fundamental processes of the servo-mechanism. Instead we are goal striving machines. Based on images we set our success mechanism in motion. This means that we have to pay more attention to the images we are feeding to our success mechanism. We need to take better care of our self-image and the self-image we aspire to. This means we need to analyze ourselves in terms of strengths and weaknesses, as well as become aware of negative images held in relation to our complete personality. The latter means that we have to recognize our mistakes / errors, but not so much that we disrupt the success mechanism, for example by unnecessary worry. The evaluation of the self-image should result in a realistic current and future self-image to aspire to.
Goals are based on your self-image
Dr. Maltz sees the subconscious as a mechanism that the mind controls. He calls this our servo- or success mechanism. It will function based on the goals it is given. These goals are based on your self-image. This self-image dictates the limits of your accomplishments—what you believe you can do. The servo-mechanism uses past memories as a structure for solving current problems. Hence, preferably you should accentuate positive successful memories as a blueprint for your current success mechanism. You should forget memories of failure as much as possible. For example you only remember the times when your success mechanism worked as intended, e.g. you being in your element during a business meeting, or being “in the zone” or in a “flow” state during a golf match.
Go to part 3.