Your Inner Thermostat: Turn Up the Self-Image Heat (Heroic +1 #1670)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one we talked about some powerful wisdom from Darren Donnelly's latest Sports for the Soul series fable, the Mental Game. As you may recall, in the book, a struggling golfer gets wise advice from his mentor who tells him he needs to control his self talk. More specifically, his mentor tells him that he wants to talk to himself rather than listen to himself. Note that's a really powerful distinction. I repeat, quit listening to the negative voices in your head. Talk to yourself positively and powerfully. And remember, the point of powerful self talk isn't to deceive ourselves, it's to direct ourselves. So self talk is important if we want to perform at a high level. And you know what else is important? Our self image. Here's how Darren's wise guide puts it as he coaches his struggling I quote, you can't consistently perform in a way that is inconsistent with your self image. This means you can't outperform your self image, at least not for very long. In the long run, whatever you believe about yourself becomes reality. He continues by saying, see yourself as a successful person capable of achieving great things and you'll prove yourself right. See yourself as a victim of unfair fate who can never get ahead and you'll again prove yourself right. It doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes it can take years, but eventually it happens. Your reality ends up matching the set point of your self image. Andy tells us, think of your self image as a thermostat. You set it at a certain temperature and depending on weather conditions, the room temperature can rise above or or fall below the set temperature at various times. But eventually it settles back to the thermostat's set point. It's the same way with your self image. Whatever it's set at, you will live up to or down to that set point. When you give your self image a set point, your mind mostly subconsciously works day and night to reach that set point. End quote. That's from one of the very first chats the hero of our story, Jack has with his mentor Eddie. Now Jack is struggling on the PGA Tour. Eddy challenges him to step up his self image from a struggling barely makes the cut PGA player to a championship caliber player sternly advising him that he will never outperform a poor self image. Now, when I read this chapter, I felt like I was reading a fictional version of a chapter from Lanny Basham's With Winning in Mind. Here's how Lanny puts it, and I quote him, your self image makes you act like you. It keeps you within your comfort zone. If you are below your zone your self image makes you uncomfortable and turns up your power until you are within the zone. Likewise if you are above your zone the self image will cut your power dropping you back within your zone. As long as you act like you, the self image is content and does not interfere. To change your performance you must change your self image and elevate your comfort zone. Lenny continues by saying controlling that change in your self image may be the most important skill you will ever learn. You can change any attitude you do not like. When the self image changes, performance changes End quote. That's today's one Spotlight on you. How's your self image? Do you need to turn up the heat on your thermostat? Who are you at your absolute best? Imagine that and go be that today. Little P.S. check out our hour long masterclass on self image 101 in the Heroic app for more.