Create a Self-Image That Paves the Road to Success

It all starts with your self-image. A strong self-image provides the foundation for confidence, action, and persistence. If you don’t think highly of yourself, those qualities will be in short supply. It’s not easy to examine, challenge, and change one’s beliefs about themselves. But, it must be done to reach the highest levels of success.

Not only will you experience more success, but you’ll also feel better about yourself. All aspects of your life are affected.

Enhance the way you view yourself and enjoy greater success:

1. Figure out what’s standing in the way. What beliefs and recurring thoughts do you have that are limiting or tarnishing your self-image? Make a list of all your limiting and negative beliefs, and then prioritize the list. Work with the 10 most damaging. A few examples include:

• I’ll never be good with money.
• I’m not good at making friends.
• People don’t like me.
• I just can’t lose weight.
• I don’t have any self-control.
• I’m horrible at math and science.
• I’m stuck in this career for the rest of my life.
• It’s too late to change my life.

2. Attack each belief individually. Use everything at your disposal. Imagine you have the negative belief, “I’ll never be good with money.”

• The statement is ridiculous. Anyone can be good with money if they know the “rules” of personal finance. You’ve also mastered plenty of other things you weren’t naturally good at, like riding a bike, speaking English, walking, making coffee, and playing tennis. Most of those things are more challenging than handling money well.
• You remember that you were a diligent saver as a child. You also took a personal finance class in high school. You were the treasurer of your junior class. You also earned and saved enough to take a trip to Europe after your sophomore year of college.

3. Learn what you need to know and create a plan. Maybe your friend-making skills are a little rusty. So you buy a book on enhancing your social life, join a wine-tasting club, and put your newfound skills to work. It won’t take long to see real improvement in your results and your self-image.

4. List your accomplishments. You’ve already accomplished a lot – speaking, graduating from school, getting your first apartment, securing your first job, hitting a homerun in little league, learning to drive. List them all. Keep the list handy and review it daily.

5. Say positive things to yourself. Everything you say to yourself is nonsense, but you eventually believe it. Why not say things that are helpful? Catch yourself when the negative talk starts flying and change your thoughts.

• “I can’t do this” becomes “I know I’ll find a way.”
• “I’m too short” becomes “I’ve been tall enough so far for everything that matters. My height is irrelevant.”

6. Spend time with people that make you feel good about yourself. And avoid those that make you feel bad about yourself. There are people in your life that make you feel like an attractive, fascinating genius, and there are those that manage to do the exact opposite. It’s obvious which group will enhance your self-image.

• Create a list of people to spend more time with and a list of people to avoid.

Changing your view of yourself isn’t easy. The path is clear, but challenging to execute. The process requires courage, experimentation, and patience. Develop a realistic opinion of yourself. Be fair with yourself. It’s human nature to emphasize the negative and downplay the positive. Enhance your self-image and take your success to the next level.