More than 50 years ago, plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz made a remarkable discovery: Some of his patients — after radical surgery to improve their appearance — still felt ugly.
Some of them went so far as to deny that any cosmetic surgery had been done at all…despite “before and after” photos that clearly showed the difference.
That led Maltz to explore the world of self-image and its impact on us in our everyday lives.
Truth is not the issue
He looked to the then-new discipline of cybernetics, “the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things,” to explain the impact of self-image and how to change it.
Maltz concluded that our subconscious mind is an impersonal, automatic, goal-striving machine that achieves what our conscious mind tells it to do.
Just like a guided missile gets feedback from radar, sonar and other “sense organs” to stay on target, so does the center fielder use feedback from the speed of the ball, wind direction and so forth to reach his target, catching a fly ball.
In a similar fashion, the “servo-mechanism” of our subconscious takes the feedback we give it — our thoughts, words and deeds — to help us reach our own target.
What kind of feedback are you providing your own “servo-mechanism” to reach your target?
In order to succeed, Maltz believed that we must have a Success Mechanism — a target or goal — and use our imagination to envision it.
In his book, Maltz gave many examples of how imagination helps people reach their goals. He wrote about the chess player who toppled a world champion by spending three months playing chess only in his mind. He recounted the story of a concert pianist who practiced mostly in his own head.
Napoleon “practiced” soldiering for many years before taking to the battlefield. Conrad Hilton played hotel operator as a boy.
And in the years since “Psycho-Cybernetics” was published, we’ve seen many world-class athletes do the same type thing with extraordinary results: They imagine every step, every feeling, every sense, as if it were real, all the way to the winner’s circle.
We all have our own examples, even if it’s something as simple as imagining a wad of paper hitting the center of wastebasket…and then doing it.
Our imaginations are powerful things. A person walking in the woods, suddenly confronted by an actor in a realistic bear costume, will have the same physiological reaction as if confronted by an actual bear. It does not matter that the “bear” exists only in our mind; our brain and body acts as if it’s real.
Self-image is reality
And so we come to our own Success Mechanism. If you think you are stupid, ugly, shy, fat, weak, inferior or poor, you are. Your image of yourself has become your reality.
If you’ve got negative images of yourself that are driving your reality, it’s time to use your rational brain to examine and re-evaluate these beliefs.
Ask yourself:
- Why do I believe this?
- Is this actually true or something I’ve assumed or something someone told me years ago?
- Is it possible that I’m mistaken?
- If this isn’t true, why should I keep acting and feeling as if it were?
- If I were looking at someone else in the same situation, would I think the same thing? (I am especially fond of this one, as we usually see other people’s situations more clearly than we view our own.)
Use the answers to reconfigure your own “servo-mechanism” and prime your Success Mechanism by imagining what you want…in all its glorious, Technicolor detail. A life or business coach can help you get there.
What mistaken belief about yourself have you abandoned? Please add in the comments below. (P.S. Mine was being shy!)