The Science of Self-Image - The Key to Well-Being

Agenda:
- Self-Image - the key
- Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz, MD
- The mind is a goal-seeking machine
- Provide the image, the machine makes it a reality
- We can change our self-image anytime
- Influential books emphasizing the power of thought

The Science of Self-Image - The Key to Well-Being

I think the topic of this video is the most important of all.
It’s about self-image.

Here is the link to the video

Here's the script:

A few years ago, I was having coffee in Boston with a friend.
He said he wanted to lose weight.
At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds.
He asked me, “but Peter, how do you motivate someone like me?”

I think about that question all the time.

Most of us want an answer right now – the quick fix – the formula.
The right habit, the right routine, the right book, the right diet.

But I think we might be putting the cart before the horse.
Before we can begin, we need the right self-image.

Growing up in California, we had this book at home.
Psycho-Cybernetitcs, by Maxwell Matlz, MD, published in 1960.
I figured it was an important book – fancy, science fiction title – written by a doctor.
It seemed New Age to me. Whatever that meant.

I was 10 years old at the time – but I had no clue what it was about.
Fifty years later, I finally opened up the book.

When we think about peak-performance thinkers like Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, or Tony Robbins, there’s one name you don’t hear: Dr. Maxwell Maltz.
In 1960, the year Tony Robbins was born, Dr. Maltz introduced the idea that your self-image is key to everything – happiness, success, performance, Well-Being. I agree.

Dr. Maltz was not a psychologist – he was a plastic surgeon.
He noticed that even after facial surgery, some patients still saw themselves as ugly or inferior.
That led him to explore the psychology of self-image.

Along the way, he was influenced by the science of cybernetics.
Cybernetics explained self-guided missiles and other phenomena as goal-seeking mechanisms.
Think of Cybernetics as a goal – with a target.

Maltz applied this concept to psychology.
He said – your mind works like a goal-seeking machine.
Whatever image you feed it, your subconscious mind works to make that real.

He said self-image was the key to personality and behavior.
Here’s the target again, but with Self-Image as the bullseye.
This is the key to motivation.

Maltz said everyone has a self-image.
It’s a mental blueprint based on our past experiences:

• Successes, failures, humiliations, triumphs
• Reactions from people around us, especially in early childhood.

He said self-image is the “golden key” to our behavior for two reasons:

• All our actions, feelings, behavior, abilities are derived from this self-image
• We can change our self-image at any time – we are never too young or too old.

Maltz talks about the subconscious mind as an automatic “goal-seeking machine”

• Success goals make it a Success Mechanism
• Negative goals make it a Failure Mechanism
• The machine seeks to achieve the mental images we create with imagination.

So, how do we operate the machine to change our self-image:

• We need to see ourselves differently.
• We need to feel what it’s like to be that person we see.
• Your subconscious mind responds to emotion more than logic.
• Our nervous system can’t tell the difference between an imagined experience and a real experience. This is important to remember.

• Our job is to provide the goal. The mechanism provides the means.
• Mistakes are normal – the machine will make course corrections automatically.
• Trust is part of the process – provide the goal, then let go.
• The Role of imagination is huge – by reliving our best memories…
• …. we can use our imagination to see ourselves achieving a goal in the future.

• Take small actions to reinforce your new self-image – a new book, a walk, cold shower, healthy meal.
  - Two books are helpful here: Tiny Habits and Atomic Habits. See the links.
  - Alcoholics visualize enjoying life without liquor.
• An American industrialist, Henry Kaiser said, "we create our future with imagination."

In case you think any of this is bullshit, here are people Tony Robbins has worked with:
Serena Williams, Wayne Gretzky, Shaquille O’Neal, Marc Benioff, Paul Tudor Jones, Steve Wynn, Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Jackman, Bill Clinton.
Self-image, visualization, and peak performance strategies are highly effective.

I remember around the time I turned 60, living in Boston, I wanted a change.
I saw myself living someplace warm, near the beach, with a different routine, and a new purpose.
Two years later, I was living in Miami Beach. Visualization made that happen.

We don’t need to stay stuck in the same old, boring grind as we age.
Changing our self-image is a good start to a more interesting life.

Finally, I wanted to share a few books that planted these seeds in me going back decades.
You might already be familiar with them.
Links are in the description of my YouTube video.

- Essays - Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson; "The ancestor of every action is thought."
- As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen; "Thought shapes destiny."
- Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill; "Visualization precedes material results."
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl; "We always have the freedom to choose our attitude." 
- The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (and others); "The Law of Attraction - Everything that comes into our life is the result of the images in our mind."
- Tiny Habits, by BJ Fogg
- Atomic Habits, by James Clear

I also have a link to a map that shows these thinkers before/after Maxwell Maltz.
I invite you to offer suggestions or raise questions in the comments section of the video. 

Thank you,
Peter

Here is the link to the video.