The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day - Don't Waste Your Positive Thoughts

Good Morning,

I started listening to the updated version Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s classic ‘The New Psycho-Cybernetics’ (http://www.amazon.com/New-Psycho-Cybernetics-Maxwell-Maltz/dp/0735202850) today. This work was originally published in 1960 and has been the foundation of much of the Self-Help industry since then.

One of the concepts which caught my attention out of the gate was when Dr. Maltz talked about how people’s self image changed after having plastic surgery. For example: a person with a defect on their nose or face who has been introverted and shy became more open and extroverted after they had the plastic surgery to correct the defect. The surgery only changes the body; the change in the self image was made by the person themselves.

Think about that for a moment.

The person with the physical defect did not have to wait for the surgery to change their self image. That was always within their ability.

This means that we too can change our self image whenever we want to. We do not have to wait for a surgery or some other life-changing event to change our viewpoint of ourselves. We can do that now.

This also brings up a very important point that Dr. Maltz shared. If we have been having problems in some areas of our lives, then we need to change our self image before we can make any lasting changes to our lives. This means reading a book, listening to a tape, or watching a video may give us some ideas and make us feel good about ourselves. These positive thoughts will not, though, have a lasting impact on our lives if we do not change our self image.

If we feel we are a loser or have bad luck, then thinking positive thoughts is not going to change the fact we feel we are a loser or have bad luck. The positive thoughts will come, and we will feel good about ourselves, but this will be superfluous as our self image will eventually overpower the positive thoughts. Which is why we often hear folks say “I tried thinking positive, and it did not work. You see, it doesn’t work!’

If we do not change our self image, how we see ourselves, then no new technology, information or whatever will have any sort of lasting impact on our lives. In effect, it is just wasting time and teasing ourselves.

I encountered this with my book. I was sending messages of the day out for over two years and several folks asked me to write a book. I thought that was well and good, but I felt I could not write the book, that I was not capable of this. So every time I put my mind to work to plan out the book; it would go nowhere fast. I would get ideas and thoughts, but they would not go anywhere, I would just sputter. It was not until I decided that yes, I could write a book, that ideas for the book came together. I had to change my image of myself from being incapable of being an author to being that person.

I received a lot of support in the way of emails, phone calls and moral support, and these helped, but it was my changing my belief in myself that allowed the goal to be realized.

Do not waste your positive thoughts until you have changed your self image, otherwise you could very well be spinning your wheels and setting yourself up for another fall.

Have faith, as you can make this change, I know you can.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net