The Power of Your Self Image

Our recent blog posts have been exploring the subject of self-confidence.  A consistent finding in psychological research is a direct correlation between self-confidence and success. Confidence is a major differentiating factor between elite and non-elite performers.

To develop your self confidence it is important to explore how we think and how our minds work.  An important aspect for us to understand is that of our self image, how it is made up and what you can do to improve it.

In my last blog post I explained the difference between the two spheres of activity of your mind.  These spheres are often described as the conscious mind and the unconscious mind.

The conscious mind is your reasoning, objective level of mind.  It is the mind you are aware of when you are awake.  It’s role is to take in information, analyse it and decide if some action should be taken.

The unconscious mind is your automatic, subjective level of mind. It operates below your level of conscious awareness.  It maintains all essential life maintenance systems such as digestion, breathing and so on.  It is rather like a vast memory bank in which every experience of your life in its vast data bank.  This data contributes towards what can be described as your self-image.

Your self-image is quite simply the image you have of yourself that you believe is true.  As you were growing up, your unconscious mind has stored all the experiences, emotions, criticisms, praise and so forth in its data bank.

This has all been instrumental in forming your self-image.  It is the sum total of all of your past experiences, both good and bad, plus all of the thoughts you have accumulated throughout your life.

Your self -image is made up of thousands and perhaps even millions of mini self-images.  You will have a self-image of how good or bad you are at a huge range of activities – various sports, cooking, making love, reading, writing, making money and so on.  Then you will have a huge number of self-images about how intelligent you are, how popular you are, how funny you are and so on.  You have a mini self-image for every single aspect of your life. 

It is believed that our early experiences as children, for example, continue to affect our self-image when we are adults.  It is worth noting that our parents and other people have had a lot of influence over our self-image.  Many of these people may have had poor self-images themselves!

These influences can be passed on from parent to child and can be useful or not depending upon what they are.

When you enter into any situation in your adult life your mind instantly compares it to the information it has stored in its data bank.  Your self-image therefore has considerable control over your life.  As the psychologist William James put it: “We lead our lives as it is imagined in our minds”.

Much of how you feel about yourself is the result of a self-image (or more specifically a collection of mini-self images) that you probably haven’t been consciously aware of.  Your thoughts, feelings and behaviour will reflect your self-image.  Much of your conscious thought is the result of the content of your unconscious mind and your self-image.

It would therefore be useful to have a healthy self-image and holding data in your unconscious mind that supports you in a positive manner.  As Brian Tracy states in his excellent programme “The Psychology Of Achievement”: “What you think – you are”.

Quite simply, if you change your thoughts you can change your life.  Your life up to today has been the result of your thoughts – both conscious and unconscious.  If you change these thoughts now, in the present, you can change your life in the future. 

The past does not necessarily equal the future.  You can design the future you want.  By changing the data stored in your unconscious mind and by enhancing your self-image you can make significant and positive changes to your confidence and success.

In next month’s column we will look at some simple yet effective ways that we can do this.  Until then consider that what you think about yourself will frequently determine how successful you are in many areas of your life.  By practising thinking positive things about yourself you will be enhancing your self-image, your confidence, and therefore your performance. 

Simon Hazeldine
Founder
Increasing Life

Dedicated to Your Health, Wealth, Success, Happiness and Freedom