For any ambitious young man, not reaching your full potential can be one of the scariest things imaginable, you have all these dreams and aspirations but you don’t know where to start or how to achieve them.
Or maybe you’ve started but nothing ever seems to fall into place for you.
What is Self-Image?
Dr Maxwell Maltz discovered the self-image concept, he was a plastic surgeon, and when he removed scarring on the face a great psychological change would happen in that person, and came to the conclusion that we must have 2 images, an exterior image and an inner self-image. He then wrote the book psycho cybernetics about the topic.
Psycho = the mind
Cybernetics = science of control and communication
Self-image is the mental picture we have of ourselves — our beliefs, perceptions, and who we believe we are. It is formed through our experiences, upbringing, societal influences, and interactions with others.
See the only thing that separates you from being successful is your perception of yourself and the way that you view yourself. Everyone of us has an image in their mind about themselves called the self-image.
The reality we live in, the job we have, the relationships we have, how we present ourselves, how we carry ourselves, etc. are all a result of our inner self-image. As we alter this image everything outside begins to change.
“Changing your external world without changing your internal world first is as foolish as trying to change the reflection of a mirror without changing the physical appearance.” — Bob Proctor
A lot of what we think about ourselves is created from the image that others impose onto us, who they think we are, who they paint us to be, the words they speak to us. And we tend to believe those things, and oftentimes it’s not self-imposed.
Too many people don’t know much about themselves, they don’t have a healthy relationship with themselves, so they don’t have a good self-image. This is why people don’t attempt to do anything of any great consequence because they don’t think that they can.
So in order to change our reality & the life we live, we first need to change our self-image and the way we view ourselves.
Importance of Improving Self-Image
Changing our self-image means you will need to spend time alone without distractions, let your body relax and build the image in our minds of how we would like to see ourselves.
As Bob Proctor describes, we become what we think about. Therefore, if you have created a negative self-image, it is because of a negative thought pattern and if you have created a positive self-image, it’s due to creating a positive relationship with yourself & developing a positive thought pattern.
You have to believe you can achieve otherwise you won’t achieve. You have to view yourself as the type of person that can get those results, otherwise how will you ever achieve if you never have the belief that you can do it. All it comes down to is viewing yourself differently and beginning to think different thoughts about yourself.
This is often why an obese person struggles to lose weight, because their self-image hasn’t changed, they view themselves as an obese person still. Which shows that yes, a personal trainer can help you lose that weight, but they won’t help you remain at that point. Your self-image must change and the way you view yourself must change if you want to see a permanent change in your life.
This is the truth, if you don’t believe me, I’ll give you a few examples of how changing self-image will change your reality & what happens when you don’t change it. Example 1) is the contestants of the TV show, “The Biggest Loser.” People will say it’s down to metabolism for why contestants tend to gain all their weight back after the show is finished, but it isn’t. The people on the show made the physical change but never changed how they viewed themselves, so once the show was finished, most would put the weight back on, because they view themselves as someone that is obese still.
I am also a testament to how changing your self-image will change your physical world. I was skinny and through changing how I viewed myself, I changed my physical reality.
Another example of this is in bodybuilding, prior to working out, most bodybuilders can only attract low quality women, they then change who they physically are, but you’ll see a lot of them still go for lower quality women, because they don’t change their self-image.
So the biggest question you have to ask yourself is are you willing to change your self-image? Are you willing to let go of the image that you once held about yourself in order to create a better outcome for your reality?
How to Positively Change your Self-Image
In order to change your self-image it’s about changing how you view yourself, and understanding who you are at this current point of time in your life, in order to make that change. You must have the self awareness to know who you are as a person. What makes you, you? As well, there should be nothing that someone else can tell you about you, that you don’t already know about yourself. Don’t just block out your internal dialogue through mindless consumption.
So understand who you are right now, the person you are at your core, study yourself. Spend time alone to develop a better relationship with yourself, and to understand what direction you want to go in your life. Then understand how you’d like to see yourself acting in life relating to other people, your social life, how you want to view yourself in your ideal world, understand the person you would be if you lived your ideal life, and what actions you would take every day if you were that ideal version of yourself. Describe that picture, describe it and write it out in the present tense, how would you like to see yourself?
Describing this ideal life might be a lie to us at this current point in time because it isn’t our current reality, but if you see, consume, read it often enough, you’ll start to believe it as reality.
You must also understand that your subconscious mind controls your behaviour, so it’s important to understand and be conscious about what we’re feeding your subconscious. For example, a lot of people consume drill music, and as a result they start thinking that being a degenerate is acceptable because they feed it to their minds all the time and they start to believe that they are someone that lives that lifestyle. So you have to replace the self-image that you keep at the subconscious level.
The words you speak and the way you speak is also important when it comes to you building a positive self-image and relationship with yourself. You have to learn to stop using weak words, for example instead of saying “I’m trying to do” say “I’m doing.” So you must change your thoughts and your thought patterns, as well as the way you speak, to change the way you think, which will change the way you act & the actions you take.
Changing your physical appearance and the way you act can be a good starting point, because this is a change, but you must also work on yourself internally.
If you want to become a confident young man, what type of self-image would a confident man have? How would they act? What would they do? How would they carry themselves? How would they perceive themselves? What type of man do they picture themselves to be? How would their social skills be? What type of physique would they have? They probably wouldn’t be someone that sits on their computer all day with terrible posture, with a bad diet, bad hygiene, bad health, etc. They’d be successful in their field, dress well, smell nice, have good social skills, have good mannerisms, know how to take care of themselves mentally & physically, know what to say at the right times, etc. So act as if you are the person that has what you want already.
So you have to replace your old way of thinking with a new positive way of thinking. You have to understand that you are capable of doing what you want. But are you willing to do what it takes to achieve what you want?
How Changing Self-Image Will Change The Way You Live:
When you change your self-image, you change your reality. Bob Proctor teaches that our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. As you cultivate a positive self-image, you attract opportunities, relationships, and experiences that align with the newly crafted image that you have creating for yourself.
His teachings on self-image remind us that we have the power to shape our lives by changing how we perceive ourselves. By embracing a positive self-image, challenging limiting beliefs, and taking intentional actions, we can live life to its fullest and create a life filled with purpose, success, and intention.
The Biggest Loser Article
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html
