Transform Your Self-Image

How you see yourself will determine your results!

Deep in our subconscious mind lies our identity. Our identity is a map of how we see the world and, more importantly, how we see ourselves. In the Book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz explains that the subconscious uses the Identity (how we see ourselves) as a servo-mechanism, similar to an airplane's autopilot, which keeps us on track and aligned with how we see ourselves subconsciously. Our daily thoughts, actions, and feelings are meant to maintain and align our lives, so they reflect and strengthen our Identity. This can be a very positive influence or a terribly negative one. If our identity is responsible for so much of how we live our lives, how did we get it in the first place? Great question, I'll explain.

Identity is composed of several things, but primarily of our inner values, beliefs, and experiences. Much of our Identity is formed through modeling our caregivers for the first 7 years of life. While we can and often do change some of these core beliefs and values, others are deeply rooted because of the emotions that helped us form them in the first place. These values, beliefs and experiences (programs) often have strong feelings tied to them, and the emotions we experience when going against these programs are uncomfortable. The inner voice that tells us not to try, that we are just like our parents, or that we are just born that way kicks in, only strengthening the influence these thoughts and beliefs have on our lives. They result in fear, self-sabotage, procrastination and many other limiting behaviors and beliefs. So changing these will require some work, but rest assured, I will share some important tools with you to help you begin changing the limiting beliefs.

What is a servo-mechanism? As I mentioned before, a servomechanism is like an airplane's autopilot, which keeps the plane moving toward the desired outcome. This servo-mechanism uses programming in the subconscious mind, both at the identity level (which I explained already) and based on recent events and experiences. This autopilot influences, through memories and feelings (emotions, in this case), what we focus on and what we do, to some extent. Often, the decisions we make are predetermined in the subconscious mind before we even consider them consciously. Creating lasting change then requires us to pay more attention to why we are doing what we are doing, so we can begin to take steps to reroute the autopilot, so to speak.

In 2004, a documentary film titled What the Bleep Do We Know? was released and had a profound impact on those seeking to make positive changes in their lives. In the movie, one of the contributors, Dr. Joe Dispenza, notes that when Columbus first arrived in the Americas, the Native Americans could not see the clipper ships as they approached because their eyes could not detect the boats. It wasn't until Columbus and his men arrived in the smaller skiffs that the indigenous people could see them. It has been argued that this information might not be 100% verifiable, and yet I know for a fact that we can be wired not to notice certain things while fixating on others that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

The eternal question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" comes to mind as I consider the last paragraph. Are we wired to focus on and notice the negative in life or the positive? What if our self-image is more wired as self-defeating and limiting? What if we don't even know that we are living life through the lenses of pessimism and lack? And sadly, what if we don't believe we deserve better than we get on a deep subconscious level?

The good news is that all of that can change, and while it does take some work and dedication to the vision of what you want, you can make the changes happen faster than you might think. But the first and most important item on your "to-do list" for creating change is to know what you want and to focus on that rather than focusing on what you don't want. 

Tony Robbins tells of the time he was invited to learn how to drive Nascar. In the training beforehand, the instructors told him that there would be a time when an instructor would deliberately cause the car to skid or spin out, and that when that happened, he needed to focus on the road, not the wall. You see, at the beginning of training, all the drivers focus on the wall whenever there is a spinout or something else that sends the car toward it. It's natural to look at where the car is going even if it is not where you want it to. The story goes that the instructor had to physically reach over and turn Tony's head to focus on where he wanted to go, not on the wall, where he did not want to go.

As I mentioned before, to create the change you want, you must focus first on where you want to go. What you want your life to look like. How you want your self-image to be. It is tempting to focus on what we don't want, and as we do, we tend to move toward it even though we don't want to. We are naturally wired to notice what is wrong; it helps us stay alive, and yet it can be crippling when we want to create a better life. 

Should you find that you would like to take the next step to complete self-image reprogramming, reach out to me, and let's set up a strategy session to determine your goals and whether some life and mindset coaching can help you achieve them even faster. 

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