| Book – The New Psycho-CyberneticsAuthor – Maxwell MaltzPublisher – Souvenir Press, Great Britain, 2005
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The self-image then controls what you can and cannot accomplish, what is difficult or easy for you, even how others respond to you just as certainly and scientifically as a thermostat controls the temperature in your home – MM page 3.
This book is a classic book that has become a seminal text for motivational and success greats such as Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brain Tracy and others. It is one of the first books that provided the foundation for the psychological training for the US Olympic teams a number of decades ago, and was highly influential in the development of the NASA astronaut training program.
Maltz’s work was developed from his experience as a plastic surgeon. He would often find patients on whom he had operated and achieved amazing reconstructive results physically, who still thought of themselves as ugly. When he realised was that change needs to happen on the inside for it to make a difference to our well-being and happiness.
Maltz states that our mental blue-print or picture of ourselves, our self-image, is built up from our beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs have been formed unconsciously from our past experiences, our successes, failures, humiliations, triumphs and the way other people have reacted to us and to things around us, especially in our formative years of childhood. From this we mentally construct a “self” picture or self concept which becomes our “truth”. We do not question its validity but rather, proceed to act from it as if it were true.
Maltz says that all of our actions, feelings, behaviors and abilities are always consistent with our self-image. This means that we will always act like the sort of people we conceive ourselves to be. For example, if someone sees themselves as being not very “smart” that is the result they will have. If someone has a fat self image, we know that dieting, exercise etc will not shift their weight until they change their mindset (self-image).
Realising that our actions, feelings and behaviour are the result of our own image and beliefs provides leverage to being able to change our personality and develop more useful skills, success and happiness. The concept of mental rehearsal comes from Maltzs’ work. He referred to this as the “Theatre of the Mind”, where we can create mental pictures to practice new traits and attitudes. It works because the nervous system (the unconscious mind) cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined.
The concept of mental rehearsal has been used successfully in all areas including sport, business, sales, academia, relationships, healing, pain relief, recovery from injury, The book contains activities or “prescriptions” that can be implemented to put the teachings into practice. When we use these techniques we are more able to accomplish any virtually goal quickly and easily.
This book is the seminal work on mental rehearsal, and a really practical book that I highly recommend as a must read for anyone wanting to ease their way to greater success and happiness.
You are today where your thoughts have brought you.
You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. James Allen
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