In this introductory video for the "Psycho‑Cybernetics Built for Impact" course, Jake Burhans presents a concise yet comprehensive overview of Maxwell Maltz’s classic self‑help book Psycho‑Cybernetics. He frames the book as a timeless, 1960‑published foundation for reshaping identity, and introduces his own BUILD framework (Break limiting beliefs, Upgrade your operating system, Imagine your future, Let go of the past, Transcend). Burhans explains the core premise that humans function as cybernetic systems—like guided missiles or thermostats—using negative feedback to correct course toward a goal, and that the self‑image acts as the barometer for this process. He illustrates the concept with Maltz’s plastic‑surgeon anecdote, showing how changing a person’s belief about themselves (rather than the physical alteration) transformed behavior. The video links this to modern neuroscience, citing Hebb’s Law (neurons that fire together wire together) to argue that vivid visualization rewires neural pathways, enabling a new identity. Burhans also highlights the book’s cultural impact, noting its influence on figures such as Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, and Bob Proctor, and positions the course as an implementation‑focused distillation of each chapter, emphasizing actionable tools over passive consumption. The central mantra—"Believe, Behave, Become"—is presented as the actionable framework for reprogramming self‑image from the inside out.
Chapters
Welcome to the Psycho-Cybernetics Built for Impact course. Super excited to be bringing you this teaching here. This is one of my favorite self-help books. I just finished reading it for the second time. I thought it was the perfect time to kind of go through the chapters as the information is fresh in my mind. Foundational book here, um, written in 1960. So whenever a book is written 60 years ago and the principles are still as true as they were then, um, now, then I think it's just a foundational book for anyone to read, especially in terms of identity and upgrading, you know, break limiting beliefs. We talk about the BUILD Framework, right, which is break limiting beliefs, upgrade your operating system, imagine your future, let go of the past, transcend into your new self. This is all about breaking beliefs, upgrading your operating system, visualization, imagining that future, letting go of the old you and moving into the next version of yourself. So all this is, is super important here. If you have not, um, subscribed to the YouTube channel, you can do that now. Uh, Jake Burhans Official, you can find me on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. All right, what is Psycho-Cybernetics? So groundbreaking self-help book by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. So it combines two things here. 2 things: psychology, which we all know psychology, then cybernetics. So cybernetic system is basically anything that uses feedback, right, kind of negative feedback to get to its destination. So an example of that is a self-guided missile, which I'll get into later on. But a self-guided missile basically reaches its destination by negative feedback signals. So it's, it's sent on its course, it gets too far off to the right, it gets a negative feedback signal, then it goes back to the left, and it gets a negative feedback signal. It goes, keeps zigzagging back and forth until it gets to its destination. Another cybernetic device would be a thermostat. So a thermostat is set to 72, temperature drops to 68, right, negative feedback signal, or too low, and it kicks back up to 72. So the whole premise of this book is that you are a cybernetic system. You're not a robot, but how you reach your goals acts and functions like a cybernetic system, and your self-image is basically the barometer of that. So if you want to get somewhere, your self-image, how you see yourself, what you believe, and how you behave has to match that, right? So you got to raise your self-image to be in alignment with the identity you're trying to get to. Because if your self-image is down here and you want to get to this, you know, incredible person, you're never going to get there because you might gain some ground, but your self-image is down here. It's going to keep dragging you back down to, you know, the baseline of where you are. So it's all about reprogramming your identity through visualization and all these things. So the main idea, like I said, is changing your self-image, you change your life. He said you'll act like the person you believe yourself to be, and this is true. I, I call it the believe, behave, become framework. So you got to believe that it's possible, then you have to behave like that person, and then eventually you become that person. So Maxwell Maltz, very interesting story for him. So he's a plastic surgeon, okay? Okay, and he was doing all these surgeries on people, and he would see how someone come in with a big nose, and, you know, maybe they were a salesperson. I think the example that he had put out was there was like a salesman, and he was really good at what he did. He got in a car accident, had a big scar, and he started to see himself as a flawed person. Not just a scar on his face, but he thought people are laughing at him, his prospects were looking at him funny, and his sales tanked, and he became an alcoholic and all these things over the course of a few years. So this salesman had come to Dr. Maltz as a plastic surgeon to see if he could fix the scar on his face. And when Dr. Maltz did that, instantly his behavior changed. He was this incredible salesperson, he stopped drinking, he got back into society. But just by fixing a scar on your face, that doesn't change anything really, but it was his belief, his perception about himself now. So Dr. Maltz did all these plastic surgeries and really saw how, hey, me, you know, making someone's nose smaller or their ears smaller or whatever the case may be, uh, was really changing these people's lives. But it wasn't the actual surgery itself, it was their belief about themselves. And that's what led him down this path of understanding that belief is the foundation, and self-image is the foundation of everything, right? Um, and that's the biggest thing. So this sparked his interest in how the mind influences behavior in reality. Like I said, cybernetics. So the study of cybernetics is how machines autocorrect to hit goals. So like I said, a self-guided missile autocorrects to hit its goal. A thermostat autocorrects to maintain that temperature. A plane on autopilot is gonna, you know, it'll get off course, but the autopilot brings it back on course. And, and Maltz believed that humans work the same way. So your brain follows your mental blueprint, good or bad. So your subconscious programming about how you see yourself and what you believe is possible is basically that programming. Um, you know, you visualize it and then your behavior is the corrective action. You get a negative feedback point, you don't quit, but you correct your behavior and you get back on track. So that's how— that's our goal-striving mechanism. We're going to get into it, but that's how you reach any destination or any goal you want to achieve. You, you reach it through negative feedback. So you get that failure point, you just keep going back and forth all the way there. Now, the belief that you already are that person that has the thing that you want is crucial because it kind of holds you through that whole process. Even when you're failing, you still believe that you could get there. You become what you aim for, right? Consciously or unconsciously. The core message of the book is your self-image is the master key to behavior change. Like I said, you can't outperform your self-image because if your self-image is someone who doesn't speak— say your self-image is one of, you know, you're shy and you're kind of timid and, you know, you talk to people but you're not the best at communication, but you want to be this world-class speaker. If you're trying to go and you get speaking engagements, all this stuff, you're gonna self-sabotage yourself because you don't feel that you're a good communicator. Or if you're a salesperson, you're not gonna go out and have the behavior, right, the tenacity, the drive, the the will to go get those new leads, the fresh leads, the sales, and go for the close because you don't see yourself as someone who's a good communicator. So you can never outperform yourself, your self-image, right? How are you gonna make $150,000 a year if you really only think that you're worthy of making $50,000 a year? Opportunities are gonna come up, but you're gonna say, "No, I don't wanna be greedy. That's not a good option for me," or whatever you wanna tell yourself. So visualization, belief, and mental rehearsal can reprogram your identity. Dr. Joe Dispenza says, or had mentioned in his book, um, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, that Hebb's Law— I love this law— Hebb's Law: neurons that fire together wire together. So each time that you visualize in your mind something, you are literally firing new neurons. They're creating new neural pathways, new synaptic connections, and you're literally rewiring your brain every time you sit down and you visualize, because the, the subconscious mind does not know the difference between a vividly imagined reality and the physical reality you're in when you open your eyes. So you can use visualization to imagine and feel into this version of yourself that you want to become. And if you do that enough times, morning and night, over and over and over, and weeks and months and a year, you literally reprogram your mind to this new identity and you become, right? So believe, behave, become. Couple fun facts: over 30 million copies sold worldwide. Really, really good book, still widely used by all sorts of people, you know, not only entrepreneurs, everyday people, people in all walks of business, coaches, athletes, therapists, all the people, right? Inspired Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Tom Bilyeu, also Bob Proctor. The whole Born Rich Bob Proctor thing is built on the book Psycho-Cybernetics. If you look up that Born Rich series, it's on YouTube, it's on Spotify, Used to be an old cassette tape thing, but the whole thing was built on this book. Yeah, one of the first books to merge science with self-help, which I think is— which is now a huge field because you got quantum physics, you got all these things. So what you're gonna learn in this course is how to reprogram your brain like a guided missile, practical tools for rewiring confidence, success, and habits, why identity beats motivation every time, and a step-by-step breakdown of each chapter in simple, actionable language. So I really simplify— these aren't like long chapter overviews, but just a few concepts. Because listen, folks, we do not have an information problem, we have an implementation problem. So I want to take the best concepts from each chapter, give it to you, give my teaching on it, and then I want you to go take action on those things versus sitting here and just consuming stuff all day and your life never actually changes. So we're gonna rewire your self-image from the inside out because you don't need to fix yourself. You just need to see yourself differently. That's it. Remember, I want you to remember: believe, behave, become. That is the framework. I will see you in the first chapter.
