imagination is the best free tool that you can use daily to help you succeed with your goals learn why hi hello my name is Liz and welcome to the quest in podcast episode [Music] one today we're going to dive into the internationally best-selling classic psycho cybernetics by Dr Maxwell maltz first published in 1960 by the end of this episode you will understand the three best takeaways from the book these important points are about understanding one your self-image two your best computer tool and three the key feelings your self-image is your concept of self which sets your own limits your best computer tool is your mind which serves as a goal striving machine the key feeling is the secret component that makes success feel effortless and easy all right let's Quest into it the author Dr Maxwell moltz worked an entire career as a plastic surgeon before becoming an author his work in plastic surgery was what inspired him to share his insights on why some people's lives improved dramatically almost overnight after plastic surgery While others did not experience much positive effects despite dramatic facial improvements he delves into the idea of those patients instead needing an emotional facelift due to the inadequate self-image one surprising statistic in the book was a study revealed that 90% of college students were quote unquote dissatisfied in some way with their appearance Dr malz referred to such as imaginary ugliness and he pointed out how it blocked people from living life to their fullest capacity he combined his observed insights with the science of cybernetics to explain beautifully how we all could easily experience positive effects by using our minds properly as a tool to accomplish our desires my first entire season of podcast episodes will be on book summaries that can completely change your life by increasing your Consciousness these books have personally gifted me with the perspective to understand how to deprogram myself of limiting beliefs in order to stop self-sabotaging and instead Thrive as a conscious Creator in control of my life Dr mold States quote most of the beliefs about ourselves have unconsciously been formed from our past experiences our successes and our failures our humiliations our triumphs and the way other people have reacted to us especially in early childhood end quote the crazy part is that unless you become conscious of such beliefs you do not question their validity but rather you proceed to act upon it just as if it were true this brings us to the first and most important takeaway from psycho cybernetics understanding self-image psychology the concept that you have of yourself determines the limits of your life because all of your actions feelings behaviors and even abilities will always be consistent with your self-image it sets your area of possible when a person gets stuck in a rut and can't seem to change their habits personality or way of life it is due to focusing on the external results of an internal problem instead of focusing outward you must address the inner aspect every single one of us carries a mental blueprint of who we believe ourselves to be your self-image is your own conception of you that is produced mentally and reflects your beliefs about yourself Dr Mal States quote discovery of the the self-image explains all the apparent discrepancies we have been discussing it is the common denominator the determining factor in all our case histories the failures as well as the successes the secret is this to really live that is to find life reasonably satisfying you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can live with you must find yourself acceptable to you you must have a wholesome self-esteem you must have a self that you can trust and believe in you must have a self that you're not ashamed to be and one that you feel free to express creatively rather than to hide or cover up you must have a self that corresponds to reality so that you can function effectively in a real world you must know yourself both your strengths and your weaknesses and be honest with yourself concerning both your self-image must be a reasonable approximation of you being neither more than you are nor less than you are end quote self-image is the first secret most people are completely unaware of that is critical to personal success in any goal however the great part is that at any time you can change and work to improve your self-image through imagination now let's dive into how your computer of a mind is your most important tool the second important takeaway from the book is that you need to become more aware of what you actually believe in because Dr Mt says quote the new science of cybernetics has furnished us with the convincing proof that the so-called subconscious mind is not a mind at all but a mechanism a goal striving Servo mechanism consisting of the brain and nervous system which is used by and directed by the Mind end quote psycho cybernetics teaches that you have a creative mechanism that will serve to guide you towards either success or failure the mental images you create through imagination are the targets that your creative mechanism uses to aim for another way to think of it is that your thoughts instinctually become the guidance of your life your mind has an instinct to go towards what you focus on you are in control to use your mind for guidance towards your goals your mind is T logical which means that it operates based on end results and goals give your mind a definite goal to achieve and you can depend on its automatic guidance system to take you there don't over focus on how but instead identify what outcomes you actually want operate your mind as a goal driving machine and trust that your focus on the goal will self-correct along the journey the best analogy to how this works in our mind is how cybernetics is used for missile torpedo systems the torpedo is set to Target and through automatic computations it locks onto its goal and works its way toward it with automatic correction from feedback along the path so just choose your desired goal and focus on what that end result looks like then trust the cybernetic nature of your mind to find the PATH there if you are vulnerable to self-sabotage then the other important note is that you must become more conscious of your subconscious mind in the next podcast episode I'll be sharing the incredible findings of biologist Dr Bruce Lipton but one point worth mentioning now is how he talks about our subconscious was programmed into us before the age of seven due to the brain wave states that you're primarily in in childhood therefore what you believe about yourself unconsciously was taught to you while you were a child ask yourself this is your subconscious full of positive optimistic thoughts that believes in success or is it full of negative outlooks that invite failure there's no wrong answer because you're conscious now but you might have to require some limiting beliefs if your subconscious is primarily occupied by pessimism don't worry if that's the case for you because you can change your beliefs consciously once you become aware that you need to if you are problem aware then you can easily become solution aware since your mind is a computer and you are the controller then you can think of imagination as the number one application you can use to access success consistently use imagination and visualization to prime your mind to accomplish your goals don't focus on what you don't want and instead continually feed your Consciousness with mental pictures of your desires trust in your instinctual guidance system that works upon the imagined pictures you tell it to go towards one example that always has stuck with me since first listening to the Audi book of this book is in it it gives this study that was done on college students in this study they basically took measurements before and after a 20-day period and they had these college students practice shooting basketball free throws so the first group they took the measurements first and the last day and that was the control group so they actually had no methodology that they enforced they just wanted to see you know what's the Baseline if we did nothing the second group they had those college students practice every single day for 20 minutes so shooting free throws every single day then the third group the most intriguing group they had them in real life take the measurements at the beginning and at the end of the study but in between those 18 days they had them imagine practicing free throws the crazy results were that you know for the control group they saw no improvement no change for the second group they saw a 24% Improvement in free throws but the third group the one that just merely imagined practicing every day they still saw a 23% Improvement in free throws which just think about that that is mindboggling how powerful the practice of imagination is anything you want to improve it even if you didn't do it yet you can imagine yourself doing it and still get better at it that's how powerful your mind is which is why I say that imagination is literally the best free tool that you can use daily to help you succeed the last important takeaway from psycho cybernetics is that you will enhance the entire process of successful goal attainment by embracing a winning feeling while you engage in active imagination the magic form formula is that you combine your visualization with the feeling of accomplished satisfaction because your nervous system cannot tell the difference between a real experience and one that is vividly imagined it can't differentiate real success from imagined success nor real failure from imagined failure you program your computer of a mind for success by thinking of the end result as a present possibility which must be visualized so clearly it becomes real in your brain and nervous system the realness you imagine will activate your creative success mechanism the key to unlocking your fullest potential is allowing yourself to feel what it would feel like as if you already accomplished your goal how satisfied would you feel if your desires were already fulfilled Dr mold says quote the winning feeling itself does not cause you to operate successfully but it is more the nature of a sign or symptom that you are geared for Success it is more like a thermometer which does not cause the heat in the room but measures it however we can use this thermometer in a very practical way remember when you experience that winning feeling your internal Machinery is set for Success end quote because your brain and nervous system cannot tell the difference between sensory experience versus versus your vivid imagination you must understand that feeling already successful and self-confident can help you to easily align yourself to the best decisions moving forward if you struggle with Conjuring up a winning feeling Dr M recommended remembering the feeling of confidence and success from a past memory what you succeeded in is not as important as the feeling that you experienced so relive and any past successful experiences in your mind then indulge and honor the feelings of accomplishment satisfaction and gratitude the more detailed that you remember and experience again from those memories the better over time you'll discover yourself to be more self-confident because self-confidence is built upon the memory of past successes trust that nature will take its course to repeat itself when you focus on the winning feeling you already know very well my favorite line in the book might be this instruction mentally begin to play with the idea of complete and inevitable success for two reasons the word choice of play reflects gamifying this process and having an approach of fun with it when we allow ourselves to be playful we permit our creativity to flow and produce our best work with the least effort secondly I love the concept of inevitable success which mentally shifts you from merely believing in the possibility to declaring the security of the outcome inevitable means that you know that it's certain to happen if you really want something and you are truly dedicated to a goal then yes your success is inevitable it's not a matter of whether will it or won't it happen but instead a strong belief that when it does happen it will be very satisfying to bring everything together in conclusion you need that adequate self-image along with a clear desired goal to allow yourself to follow the best path to get there it's like putting in a destination on maps you input the final address you want to go to and then you just drive to get there you don't have to overthink or stop unnecessarily because you trust in the program software that already optimizes your directions then adding in that winning feeling is a cherry on top like when the maps app asks you if you want to get there quicker by taking a better route train yourself to feel good when you are imagining your accomplished desired outcome the magic happens when you combine viid visualization with a positive emotional experience play that imag imination over and over to yourself in your theater of the mind and you will find yourself to have more faith self-confidence and courage when you think of your goals if you want a visual summary of my psycho cybernetic booknotes please click the link in the description to download those for free continuing on our first podcast episode focused on self-development Via Consciousness our next episode will be on the biology of belief by Dr Bruce Limon be sure to subscribe to get notified when that is released but I am currently 9 months pregnant with my second baby so please have a little Grace on that timing thank you so much for joining me today on this question if you got value from and enjoyed this podcast go ahead and like comment subscribe to get notified for my future episodes until next time please take care