The following elegant quote by Dr Maxwell Maltz when I first read about it back in the late seventies actually has had set me thinking a lot during the ensuing years.

To recap:

“You can't outperform your self-image.”

Having subsequently read the works of author-film-maker-futurist Joel Arthur Barker and the late Bob Proctor, as well as others (who expanded my mental horizons like Stephen R Covey, Mark Brown, Philip Kirby, Benjamin Gilad, Wayne Burkan, and even Miyamoto Musashi and Bruce Lee), it has dawned on me that whether we are talking about self-image or paradigm, they meant the same thing that's held steadfastly within the rich and vast real estate lobed between our two ears.

Our self-image or paradigm, albeit subconsciously, are stopping us from getting our dream job, succeeding in our business, making the money we dreamed of, or enjoying a loving relationship … which area of our life is not as we desire?

Whichever area it is for us, it will be our own self image or paradigm that needs exploring and changing for the better.

We may be thinking we have business problems, however the reality is that we are more likely to have personal problems, which we are unwittingly taking into our business.

More specifically, our self image or paradigm may be stopping us from achieving our intended outcomes, personally and/or professionally.

In reality, self image or paradigm is how we perceive ourselves based on a number of self-generated impressions and experiences, successes and failures, feelings and behaviors, over time.

These will include but not limited to cultural indoctrination through childhood from our parents, neighbours, friends and teachers, as well as media messages from both the pubic as well as private sectors, and not forgetting religion.

This ultimate mental blueprint then creates our internal thermostat, which acts as our invisible boundaries.

Whoever we are BEing at the self-image level will determine our beliefs (or our belief engine, as I like to call the phenomenon), which in turn will facilitate our skill acquisition, which subsequently will drive our behaviour, which in turn ultimately will create the outcomes we so desire.

Hence, the maxim still holds true:

Change your self-image or paradigm, and you can change your life!