What is Self-Image?
What is Self-Image?
Self-image (or self-concept) is the foundation of personality. It summarises the beliefs a person holds about their own abilities, potentialities and limitations.
It is the basis of people's habitual emotional state, which drives all behaviours and therefore external results.
Self-Image Shapes Behaviour
Everything we do is an expression of our self-image: the way we dress, the way we speak, the jobs we apply for, and the ones we don't.
Our self-concept places limits on our behaviours, often self-imposed.
People rarely behave in ways that contradict their self-image; when they do, they feel fake, perform badly, and quickly return to behaviours that correspond to their self-image.
Origin of the Self-Image
When babies are born, they know practically nothing; all they know is how to suckle and startle at loud noises, or being dropped.
Children very quickly start to assemble a self-concept to describe themselves to themselves.
It is formed from information given to them by parents, siblings, friends, teachers, relatives, and media, including books and films and their own decisions, often made at a very young age.
These decisions then crystallize into firm beliefs. For example, failing at a math problem might lead a child to think, "I'm no good at maths." This belief can crystallize into a conviction, shaping their motivations and actions for life, avoiding math and never developing the skills, thereby living as a non-mathematician, fully convinced that's "just the way I am".
Subconscious Beliefs Asserting Themselves
Beliefs can be classified into two different types: conscious and subconscious. You are aware of your conscious beliefs, like your views on the current government or the existence of God. However, many beliefs are subconscious.
Mental Habits
Just as we have physical habits, like tying shoelaces in the same way every day, we have mental habits that we repeat daily without ever consciously thinking about them.
Bad Habits
Some of our thinking habits are bad because they limit our self-concept, imposing unnecessary restrictions on what we allow ourselves to believe we are capable of.
These are self-imposed limitations, not genetically mediated, and they do not truly represent our potential. They are, instead, expressions of our false beliefs about what we can and cannot do.
Reframe
To improve our emotional state and perform better in all areas, we need to gain a proper perspective on our potentialities and identify and eliminate the subconscious limitations we have imposed on ourselves.
Take the Brakes Off
If we can take the brakes off our personality, we will be able to actualise our full potential, which is our ultimate aim.
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Further Reading in Personal Development
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Continuous Improvement Mindset
Continuous improvement emphasises the constant pursuit of betterment in any situation. It promotes the idea that one can maintain a positive mindset while actively seeking improvement, referred to as the "happy, but not satisfied" mindset.
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How to be Even More Successful
No matter what you currently possess, you would probably like to see an improvement in your current situation. You would like to be more successful.
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Three ways to improve your personal effectiveness
Three ways to improve your personal effectiveness You may be thinking about how you might be able to improve your personal effectiveness. Your personal effectiveness is a measure of your ability to make rapid progress towards your own goals or the goals that have been assigned to you. If John is...
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Get Better Every Day
If you got a little better, every day, can you imagine how great you would be in the next five years?
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How to create a personal development plan
To cope with an ever-changing world, you should be a continuous state of personal development. By developing your professional skills you will be in a good place to achieve your goals and achieve success.
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