If you want to make long term change in your life and are not prepared for what might come up and how to handle it. You may find you self right back where you begin sooner that you might think.

Recently I have been making some relatively big changes in my life and I have noticed a couple of patterns that have showed up where I could have easier fallen back to where I started, if I wasn’t prepared.

In this post I thought I would share with you some of these patterns so we can both be more prepared for what shows up and to help push though to make that long term change that we are looking for.

One of my first mentors was my first sales manager Mr Dean R and he used to say that “A Leopard doesn’t changes its spots”

He would say this when a sales rep would leave his team in a hast blaming everything else except themselves only to come crawling back months later with their tail between their legs vowing that they had changed only to make the same mistake as last time and leave the company.

Now after years of observing myself and others what I think Dean was really referring to back then was the self image.

The self image is that image we hold of ourselves deep within our subconscious, the image we hold based on what we believe and value about ourselves to be true and it will determine what we think we are capable of and ultimately dictate the results you get in your life.

How is your self image?

I first learned about the concept of the self image after reading one of my favorite books by Dr Maxwell Maltz called Psycho Cybernetics.

Dr Maltz was a leading plastic surgeon in America  in the 1940’s, 50’s and 1960’s and after observing that so many patients’ unhappiness and insecurities were not cured, as they and he had believed would occur when he gave them the perfect new faces they desired.

Dr. Maltz suggested that many people “see themselves” inaccurately, their perceptions distorted by unchallenged and often erroneous beliefs embedded in the subconscious mind. – The self image.

The classic example and one of the best metaphors to explain what and how the self image works is the demonstration of a thermostat in a room.

If you set a thermostat in a room at 26 degrees Celsius and the room temperature reaches 28 degrees the thermostat will stop and weight for the temperature to drop or cool down to 26 degrees or below.

As soon as the room temperature drops below 26 degrees the thermostat will kick in again and start heating the room up until it gets back to 26 degrees.

Your self image works very much the same way, if you earn lets say $5000 a month and you suddenly start to earn $7000 a month and your self image hasn’t adjusted to except the new found fortune, just like the thermostat your self image will kick in a find a way for you to either spend the extra money, give it away or go back to earning $5000 a month.

I noticed this happen when I was in sales, whenever I had a really big month of sales and earned well above what I would normally earned my self image would kick in and very subtly start to sabotage my thoughts and behaviors.

For example I might have slacked off more the following month or have thoughts like “hey I did really well last month, I can afford to take it easy, I earned it” or I would spend money more impulsively.

The opposite was also true, if I had a slow month and dropped below what I was use to and comfortable with earning I would become extremely focused, stop going out on weekends, stop spending on an impulse and work harder with my clients to get the sale.

You can see the self image at work almost everywhere, you see it when people attempt to lose weight, they tend to progress really well for a few weeks or a month and start to lose some weight and then a month later, lose the momentum only to return to old eating habits and back to where they began.

It is also like the lottery winners who end up broke within a few years, their self image didn’t have time to adjust to their new found fortune and as a result they end up losing the money only to be back where they started or worse off a few short years later.

The self image works in very subtle ways and it can often be hard to identify what is happening until it has already happened.

I find the evolution of change has stages and choices, if you choose badly you will end up stuck isolating where you are or back to where you started, if you choose well and coach your self image to move along with you as you progress, your self image will then maintain and propel you towards the new change for long term results.

To help demonstrate this look at the picture below:

Don't get stuck on the setbacks, learn from them and break though

Let’s say you are moving towards a worthy goal as you go along you will hit challenges , however if you don’t allow yourself to get caught up in them you can break though and you will then coast along often quite easily to the next challenge or setback.

As opposed to the opposite of not breaking though and you just end up get stuck and eventually heading back to where you began, because you didn’t coach your self image along with you.

One of the major traps I have witnessed from the self image is what I call the reward trap or the “I’m doing really good” trap.

If you have ever attempted to make lasting change I am sure you will be able to relate to what I am about to say.

Let’s say you are trying to change your diet, you start out great, you stick to your new diet for a few weeks/months and then you may notice a voice in your head that says “hey, you are doing really well you can afford to have some junk food”

This is yourself image showing its head, now it is fine to treat yourself and reward yourself in fact it helps you stay motivated and on track and if it is only that once then it won’t make a big impact on your long term health or goal.

However if you are not careful and if you don’t nip this in the butt quickly before you know it you can easily be back to where you started, which is not ultimately where you want to be, right?

Getting stuck in patterns from the old self image

What helped me push though these moments is to think about the reason WHY you what to make these changes in the first place.  By following though and committing to these changes what is it going to give me, what pleasures will I gain?

The self image works very subtly, you may only be slipping up a very small amount each day, but these soon compound and before you know it you are stuck where you began.

On the other hand once you have your self image on your side it works in ways to propel you towards your desires, almost effortlessly.

Another strategy I use is visualization, there have been countless studies done on power of visualization and many top athletes and even astronauts use visualization techniques.

Visualization is also one of the techniques Dr Maxwell Maltz talks about in Psycho Cybernetics as a great way to re train your self image.

However the point of this post is to understand what the self image is and to be prepared for it, whenever you make changes in your life there will be setbacks, after all the habits and behaviors you are replacing, changing or improving did serve you at one stage and it only makes sense that your self image doesn’t want to let them go so easily.

If you want to make long term changes you must be prepared for it and learn how to retrain your self image to work for you instead of against you.

Whenever you are faced with a decision to move towards what you desire or to move in the other direction this quote always provides me with the power to choose right.

To get a much more in-depth understanding of how the self image governs your life and how you can reprogram it for success I can’t recommended Dr Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics more highly, it is one of the most impactful books I have ever read.

For almost 2 years now I have been meditating regularly and experimenting with audio tracks that influence my brain waves and brain activity. The results have been outstanding and I have made a vow to myself to continue to mediate for the rest of my life and do what I can to continually to expand my consciousness.

I saw this video today and I have to say if you want to expand your consciousness them you should watch this everyday in HD on the biggest tv screen you have.

How big can you dream? This is not a trick question…how big can you dream? It sounds like a silly question but many of us don’t dream that big and many people as they grow older don‘t dream much at all. If you have read any book or listened to any personal development program on personal development I am sure you have heard the manta ‘You must dream big’.

Most people I know don’t won’t to change the world, most simply just want to live a comfortable, healthy life and have meaningful relationships, which is fantastic.

For the last 2 years now I have been inspired by a man who does want to change the world.

I want to introduce you to a man who has never stopped dreaming big and I mean really big, he is redesigning the world as we know it. Some say he is a quack and others a genius. (But isn’t that what they said about Einstein) Many of his ideas are outrageous however after over 6 decades you can start to see many of his ideas come to reality.

The man I am talking about if you don’t know already is Jacque Fresco. Jacque is an architect and futurist. Jacque has founded The Venus Project which is a plan to re design humanity and the way we live. Here is a The Venus Project on Fox News

Many of his ideas are now being implemented on buildings in Dubai. Fresco designed a way of building buildings in sections and them assembling them pieces by piece to speed up the building time and to cut costs, currently there are a series of buildings being constructed in Dubai in this same way.

These building have rotating levels which are first constructed in a factory in Germany and then shipped to Dubai and built from the top down. These skyscrapers can be built in half the time a traditional skyscraper is.

This is just one example of many. Jacque has talked about building creating energy through solar panels and wind power and now building all across the globe are adopting these strategies.

Here are another video of Fresco sharing some of his amazing ideas

So why am telling you about Jacque Fresco and what does all this have to do with you? Great question I am glad you asked….

I am always inspired by Jacque Fresco and his remarkable ideas, we all have the potential to change the world, it all starts with a dream and a desire. I hope Jacque inspires you as much as he has me to never stop dreaming.

I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas and feedback, leave me a comment and if you like what you just read make sure to retweet it. Blessings 

Have you ever really thought about what you really want? Most people say they want to be rich or want a million dollars; however this is not really what you want it is what you think the money will do for you. So what would you do if you were earning a million dollars a year?

Go travelling, be a full time parents, spend more time with your spouse… Well what if I told you that you can have all this and live like a millionaire without being one.

Welcome to the New rich…To live your dream life doesn’t necessary require a lot of money in fact it can be a surprising small amount when you really do the math. What you do need to be is use different strategies and think a little different from what you are doing now.

I am sure you have heard of the Pareto’s 80/20 Principle which states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.

We live in a wonderful era where the world is connected and you can access almost anything though a click of a mouse. This also includes other professional in other countries with MBA’s that are willing to do your work for pennies on the dollar. What am I talking about? Outsourcing!

To live like a millionaire you first need to identify and stop doing 80% that is only bring in 20% of the results and focus more on the 20% that results in 80% of your results. If you can’t stop doing them simply delegate them and outsource the tasks.

Let me give you an example. If you need to do tasks like research, send emails, formatting, etc you could hire a virtual assistant for $5 an hour so you can focus on more important tasks that bring in bigger results – the 20% If you do this you will have more time, less stress and will earn more money quicker simply because you are now focusing more on the 20% that brings in 80% of your results.

This can be done whether you are an employee or and business owner. Tim Ferriss has mastered this and has written a book called the 4 Hour Work Week, I highly recommend you read it and apply it. There truly is no end to what you can outsource, you simple just need to use your imagination.

Tim Ferriss is a master a life style design and show you how to live like a millionaire without being one.

Watch this funny experiment Tim did to see how far you can take this idea – Welcome to the new rich.

I love when people dream big, I mean real big, Big enough to change the world forever. Like how Henry Food said that his vision was to make the automobile affordable for everyone. Or like Johannes Gutenberg inventing the printing press in 1440, and Timothy John Berners-Lee  who had a crazy idea for the World Wide Web.

All these individuals had a dream that changed the world forever. When I saw the vision of Shai Agassi I know he is going to be one of those great stories in the making. Shai’s vision for his company Better Place is to going to change the way we fuel your cars and maybe even our addiction to crude oil.

You see, Shai Agassi’s company is going to ensure that we can confidently drive an electric vehicle (EV) anytime, anywhere, Better Place is developing and deploying EV driver services, systems and infrastructure country by country, and I am not talking about in 10 years from now. I mean right now it says it is totally possible right now and he is moving fast and growing by leaps and bounds.

Shai Agassiand has already gotten approvals from governments and country leaders. This is going to happen whether you like it or not I believe, I excited about this change. I think the plans are great it is about developing and replacing one industry for another not just patch work. Finally someone is thinking right; I don’t know why we haven’t already done it yet.

Check out the video to discover the full story.