-
Your Key to a Better Life
by Maxwell Maltz
The most
important psychological
of
this
century
is
the
discovery
of
the
mental
blueprint or picture of ourselves. It may be vague
and ill-defined to our
conscious gaze.
In fact, it may not be consciously recognizable at
all. But it is
there, complete down to
the last detail. This self-image is our own
conception
of the
ourselves.
But most of these beliefs about ourselves have
unconsciously been
formed our past
experiences, our successes and failures, our
humiliations, our
triumphs,
and
the
way
other
people
have
reacted
to
us,
especially
in
early
childhood. From all
these we mentally construct a
Once
an
idea
or
a
belief
about
ourselves
goes
into
this
picture
it
becomes
but proceed to act upon it
just as if it were true.
This self-image
becomes a golden key to living a better life
because of two
important discoveries:
1. All your actions, feelings, behavior
-- even your abilities -- are always
consistent with this self-image.
In short, you will
Not
only
this,
but
you
literally
cannot
act
otherwise,
in
spite
of
all
your
conscious efforts or
will power. The man who conceives himself to be a
type person
will power, even
if opportunity is literally dumped in his lap. The
person who
conceives himself to be a
victim of injustice, one
invariably
find circumstances to verify his opinions.
The self-image is a
entire
personality,
your
behavior,
and
even
your
circumstances
are
built.
Because
of
this
our
experiences
seem
to
verify,
and
thereby
strengthen
our
self-images, and a
vicious or a beneficent cycle, as the case may be,
is set up.
For example, a schoolboy
who sees himself as an
who is
out. He then has
of person
nobody likes, will find indeed that she is avoided
at the school dance.
She
literally
invites
rejection.
Her
woebegone
expression,
her
hang-dog
manner, her over-anxiousness to please,
or perhaps her unconscious hostility
towards those she anticipates will
affront her - all act to drive away those whom
she would attract. In the same manner,
a salesman or a businessman will also
find that his actual experiences tend
to
Because of this objective
trouble
lies
in
his
self-image
or
his
own
evaluation
of
himself.
Tell
the
schoolboy that he only
your
sanity. He has tried and tried, and still his
report card tells the story. Tell
the
salesman that it is only an idea that he cannot
earn more than a certain
figure, and he
can prove you wrong by his order book. He knows
only too well
how hard he has tried and
failed. Yet, as we shall see later, almost
miraculous
changes have occurred both
in grades of students, and in the earning capacity
of salesmen - when they were prevailed
upon to change their self-images.
2.
The self-image can be changed. Numerous case
histories have shown
that one is never
too young nor too old to change his self-image and
thereby
start to live a new life.
One of the reasons it has seemed so
difficult for a person to change his
habits,
his personality,
or his
way
of
life,
has
been
that
heretofore
nearly
all
efforts
at
change
have
been
directed
to
the
circumference
of
the
self,
so
to
speak,
rather
than
to
the
center.
Numerous
patients
have
said
to
me
something
like
the
following:
you
are
talking
about
'positive
thinking',
I've
tried that before, and
it just doesn't work for me.
invariably
brings out that these individuals have employed
or
attempted
to
employ
it,
either
upon
particular
external
circumstances,
or
upon some particular
habit or character defect (
more calm
and relaxed in the future.
for
me,
which was to accomplish these
things.
Jesus warned us about the
folly of putting a patch of new material upon an
old garment, or of putting new wine
into old bottles.
be used effectively
as a patch or a crutch to the same old self-image.
In fact, it
is literally
impossible
to
really
think
positively
about
a particular
situation,
as
long as you hold a
negative concept of self. And, numerous
experiments have
shown that once the
concept of self is changed, other things
consistent with
the new concept of
self, are accomplished easily and without strain.
One of the earliest and most convincing
experiments along this line was
conducted
by
the
late
Prescott
Lecky,
one
of
the
pioneers
in
self-image
psychology. Lecky
conceived of the personality as a
which
must
seem
to
be
consistent
with
each
other.
Ideas
which
are
inconsistent with the system are
rejected,
Ideas which seem to be
consistent with the system are accepted. At the
very
center of this system of ideas --
the keystone -- the base upon which all else is
built,
is
the
individual's
ideal,
his
or
his
conception
of
himself. Lecky was a school teacher and
had an opportunity to test his theory
upon thousands of students.
Lecky theorized that if a student had
trouble learning a certain subject, it
could be because (from the student's
point of view) it would be inconsistent for
him to learn it. Lecky believed,
however, that if you could change the student's
self-conception, which underlies this
viewpoint, his attitude toward the subject
would
change
accordingly.
If
the
student
could
be
induced
to
change
his
selfdefinition,
his
learning
ability
should
also
change.
This
proved
to
be
the
case. One student who
misspelled 55 words out of a hundred and flunked
so
many subjects that he lost credit
for a year, made a general average of 91 the
next
year
and
became
one
of
the
best
spellers
in
school.
A
boy
who
was
dropped
from
one
college
because
of
poor
grades,
entered
Columbia
and
became a straight
A girl who had flunked Latin four
times, after
three talks with the
school counselor, finished with a grade of 84. A
boy who
was
told
by
a
testing
bureau
that
he
had
no
aptitude
for
English,
won
honorable mention the next year for a
literary prize.
The trouble
with these students was not that they were dumb,
or lacking in
basic
aptitudes.
The
trouble
was
an
inadequate
self-image
(
don't
have
a
mathematical
mind
their
mistakes
and
failures.
Instead
of
saying
failed
that
test
(factual
and
descriptive) they concluded
subject
they
said
am
a
failure.
Instead
of
saying
flunked
that
subject
they said
Lecky's
work, I
recommend
securing
a
copy
of his
book:
self
consistency,
a
Theory of Personality. The
Island Press, Now York, N.Y
.
最重要
的心理的世纪是“自我形象的发现。
“不管我们
是否意识到
,
我们每个人都携带着我们精神蓝图或自己的照
片。它可能是模糊的
,
不明确在我们有意识的注视下。事实
上
,
它可能不是有意识的改变在所有。
但它确实存在
,
完成到
每个细节。
这种自我形象的自我概念是“我是哪种人。“这
是建立在我们自己的自我信念。
但是大多数的这些自我信念
已经无意识地形成了我们过去的经验
,
我们的成功和失败
,
我们的耻辱
,
我们
的胜利
,
和别人对我们的反应
,
尤其是在儿
童早期。
从所有这些我们在大脑中
建立一个“自我”,(或一
幅自我
)
。
一旦一个关于我们自己的想法或信念进入这幅画
它就变成了“真实的”,只要我们个人而
言。我们不怀疑它
的有效性
,
但继续行
动就好像是真的。
这种自我形象成为金钥匙去更好的生活因为
有了两个
重要的发现
:
1
．
你所有
的行为、情感、行为
,
甚至你的能力