Does Success Fit Your Self Image?
- By Mark Walters
- Published 01/29/2010
- Advice
- Unrated
Your self image holds the master key to your success. Regardless of what level of success you achieve 'outwardly' in your life, your life will only ever grow to the extent that you do or, more specifically, the extent that your self image does.
There is a quote by Dr. Maxwell Maltz regarding success that is worth taking note of here - "Our self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other."
Hold a mirror up to your soul. How does your self image look when it is reflected back to you? Do you radiate with inner confidence or does the mirror reflect a rather more tarnished and murky version of the 'beautiful inner you'? Would you even dare to look in the mirror? What does your reflection say about you?
It is our self image that makes us behave like we do. Therefore, the habits we acquire, and the way we ultimately 'see' ourselves in our life, are a direct result of our self image and the way that our self image views 'us'.
As you achieve success, wealth, or 'status' in your life, if your self image gets left behind, eventually it will press the master 're-set' button on your life, and you will find yourself losing your grip on what you have achieved.
It comes down to the fundamental issue of 'derservability'. Does the self image believe that we deserve to have what we have achieved? If not, you will not be able to hold on to your success, because the self image, like all of us, has a very comfortable comfort zone.
If the self image asks "Is this really me?", and the answer is "No", the self image starts to feel out of control and will change how we act in order to get us back to a level that it feels that we 'deserve'.
This is not related to 'ego', which is on the 'outside' and is dependent on 'outside' events, like praise or adulation from others. Your self image is the praise or adulation which you give yourself. The self-talk that goes on within your mind, the images that you reflect from within to the outside world.
To sum up, our thoughts, habits and actions may be what get us to the level that we want to be at but it is the self image which is responsible for keeping us there.
There is a quote by Dr. Maxwell Maltz regarding success that is worth taking note of here - "Our self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other."
Hold a mirror up to your soul. How does your self image look when it is reflected back to you? Do you radiate with inner confidence or does the mirror reflect a rather more tarnished and murky version of the 'beautiful inner you'? Would you even dare to look in the mirror? What does your reflection say about you?
It is our self image that makes us behave like we do. Therefore, the habits we acquire, and the way we ultimately 'see' ourselves in our life, are a direct result of our self image and the way that our self image views 'us'.
As you achieve success, wealth, or 'status' in your life, if your self image gets left behind, eventually it will press the master 're-set' button on your life, and you will find yourself losing your grip on what you have achieved.
It comes down to the fundamental issue of 'derservability'. Does the self image believe that we deserve to have what we have achieved? If not, you will not be able to hold on to your success, because the self image, like all of us, has a very comfortable comfort zone.
If the self image asks "Is this really me?", and the answer is "No", the self image starts to feel out of control and will change how we act in order to get us back to a level that it feels that we 'deserve'.
This is not related to 'ego', which is on the 'outside' and is dependent on 'outside' events, like praise or adulation from others. Your self image is the praise or adulation which you give yourself. The self-talk that goes on within your mind, the images that you reflect from within to the outside world.
To sum up, our thoughts, habits and actions may be what get us to the level that we want to be at but it is the self image which is responsible for keeping us there.
