One of the most important books that I read when I was new to this spiritual path and personal growth was “Psychocybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz. In it he explained that we all have many self-image pictures of ourselves, some changing and some stay the same. These self image pictures control our lives and determine our attitude, behavior, personality and beliefs in different areas of our lives. And for the most part we cannot behave or believe outside of these self-image pictures and we cannot see, hear, or think outside of our self-image pictures either, and to do so would make us very uncomfortable.
The way I think of it is that it is as if we are living inside an invisible box and the size of the box is determined by our self-image pictures. In fact, unconsciously we will do whatever it takes to stay in that size box so that we can be comfortable. Most humans would rather be comfortable than happy, and they have resistance to change. This is why many people who win the lottery or suddenly come into a lot more money than they are used to, will often end up broke.
I had a client (when I owned a mortgage company) who went from earning minimum wage, to winning $5.5 million dollars, receiving $300,000 clear each September, and came to us for a loan until his money came in September to save his house, and some of the cars and other toys he had purchased. Unless he got help with his self-image, he will be broke when his 20 year payout ends, which is what happens to most.
There was a woman who had lost 150 lbs. and still thought she was fat even though she was a size 2. She had not changed her self-image and knew that she would probably gain the weight back if she didn’t change her pictures of herself. She had heard me speak about this and came to me for self-image coaching and was fine after she changed her self-image.
I have taught many salespeople to change their self-image and they have gone from being “on probation” to being one of the top salespeople in the company. Once they saw themselves as successful, they behaved differently, they had ideas they hadn’t thought of before, and attracted to them the right people, places, and circumstances to become the success they had imagined.
How to change the self-image pictures:
Maltz discovered that when a person takes the time to visualize a new self-image for 21 days in a row, that they will become that new self-image and their attitudes, behaviors, personality, and beliefs will also change. In my words, they will move into a new invisible box that will allow them to be, do, and have more than they ever thought possible before. The research found that if you miss a day, you start over with day one. Are you willing to take 10-15 minutes a day to create a self-image that is in alignment with what you want so that you can have it?