“It is impossible to outperform your self-image.” Dr Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics

I’ve referenced that quote about a million times.

Our self-image (our beliefs about who I think I am and am not, what does and does not happen to me, what is possible and impossible for me, what I do and do not do etc.) is the strongest force in our lives. Our number one job is to stay consistent with who we think we are – otherwise we do not know who we are which is extremely uncomfortable. When we do not know who we are, we are lost. When we get lost, we want to get found as fast as possible so we retreat from the unfamiliar back into the familiar, back into who we know ourselves to be. Our self-image is the chains that bind us.

If I have a reindeer cookie cutter, can I make snowmen, or any other Christmas cookie? No! The only thing I can make is reindeer.

What if I get focused and determined? What if I work harder and stay up late? What if I get an accountability partner? What if I visualize snowmen? Again no. The only thing I can make is reindeer. And, I’ll probably start to experience things like frustration and resignation because I really want to create snowmen but I keep getting reindeer.

That’s the way our self-image works. It creates boundaries about what we can experience even though so many other possible outcomes and results are available in the human experience.

We’ve got cookie cutters about how happy we can be, how successful we can be, how healthy we can be, how good our relationships can be, how good finances can be . . . They are all over the place in our lives. These are our limitations.

A recent client of mine had a cookie cutter of “I’m just an average guy.” Can an average guy create above average results? Not a chance! Can we make a snowman with the reindeer cookie cutter? If he doesn’t upgrade his self-image, he’s doomed to keep getting the same results even though he wants to do better and is trying to do better.

Although it is impossible to outperform our self-image, it is totally possible to upgrade our self-image. This happens in the personal growth gym. When we do this essential work, we expand what is possible for us. We change the cookie cutter.

My “just an average guy” client has started to behave more productively and produce better results because we did that self-image upgrade work. He’s becoming an above average guy (on the way to amazing guy) which means that he is producing above average results.

Is it time to upgrade your cookie cutters?