Have you heard of the best-selling book Psycho Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More out of Life written by Maxwell Maltz and published in 1960? It is still considered as one of the most influential Self-Help books to date! In this book, Maltz presents his views on self-image and how you can change your life by re-programming the mechanisms in your brain that control your behaviours and thoughts.
Maltz’s theory is that there is a clear distinction between the brain and the mind – the brain being the ‘machine’ that causes you to function and the mind being a life force that compels you to use your brain and body to achieve goals and rise to success.
“Cybernetic” is taken from the Greek word for ‘steersman’ and today the term is usually used to refer to the way machines and animals control and communicate. For example, a computer is a sophisticated machine that organises itself to perform a function. Maltz maintains that you can’t reduce yourself to a machine because you have the ability to know yourself and what makes you tick.
It is extremely challenging for someone with low self-esteem to rise to the top of the ladder of success. Unless you recognise when you’re being overly critical with your thinking process, the low self-image will keep plaguing you throughout your life and prevent you from achieving your full potential.
Understanding how your low self-image developed will help you know how to rid yourself of the negative thoughts and actions so that you’ll feel more accepting of yourself.
Combating a lifetime of self-criticism isn’t easy, but with specific support (coaching, NLP, hypnotherapy, counselling to name but a few) as well as self-help resources, you can overcome low self-esteem. You might want to start with the following resources from our eshop:
The Confidence Check (audio book, £3.99)
Get Confident – 5-Day Online Course (includes one 30-minute coaching session, £49.00)
Daily Affirmations (audio book, £7.99)
Negative thoughts about yourself and your abilities are habits that are self-defeating and need to be separated from who you really are. You can learn to replace them with a better and more uplifting image of yourself.
There are many methods that can help you with your quest to improve your self-image. One method doesn’t fit all, so take your time to look at various ways of enjoying a more vital self-image and perhaps combine several to see which ones work best for you.
It won’t happen overnight – like any bad habit, self-defeating thoughts must be dealt with every moment of every day until the bad habit is replaced with a more helpful one – and one that will improve your self-image.
If you need further help to overcome low self-image, contact info@gcm-coaching.com or 07906 226 953.