Wednesday 9 December 2015

PSYCHO-CYBERNETIC SELF-IMAGE

I am indebted to Dr Maxwell Maltz and his work Cyber-Cybernetics which changed my way of thinking and altered the course of my life. 

His work opened up new horizons for me and I really 'got it' when I read and listened to his book.

When we see an image of ourselves it is a mere reflection. It isn’t the real thing. But it is the nearest we can get to the real thing because our self-image isn’t usually 100% correct. Sometimes false information makes us create a false image in our minds.

Our mind itself is a Psycho-Cybernetic system. It is all about control and communication. A Psycho-Cybernetic system is like a thermostat, it measures deviation from a set goal, it sends information into the co-ordinated mechanism which corrects the output and keeps what is moving on target towards a set goal.

Paradigms are a multitude of ideas and habits. Both Cybernetics and Paradigms control systems that operate on the same principle. Both maintain a definite course of action and will not deviate from the course that has been established. You must alter the paradigm to achieve the result you want.

People can get set in a particular mind-set or paradigm. A sales manager can tell you what their salespeople will achieve next month based upon a level or paradigm the salesperson has got rooted in.

When I was Sales Director for a Cable TV and Telephone Company in London it was known that certain parts of the Capital were notoriously more difficult to sell in than others. The reasons were demographics. Some areas had people who were not interested in buying from salespeople so that took a lot more specialized approach but also, central London was terrible for traffic and parking. One salesperson always reached 110% of target each month. I asked him if he would like to work an easier area for a while, one where it was easier to park, less traffic, the people were more approachable and the area was classified as ‘new-build’ which meant new clients that had never been able to have the service before, otherwise known in the business as ‘dreamland’! Naturally, he said Yes please!...

Over a six month period he was 110% of target. He made the same commissions as before. It didn't matter where he was, in a hard area or an easy one. He was in the same place in his Psycho-Cybernetic System.

He had the same paradigm as before. His self-image, being the Psycho-Cybernetic instrument measured any deviation from a set goal and immediately corrected the course.

Here is the major lesson: People live their lives this way because they don’t know any different.

We have to understand the concept of Self-Image, Psycho-Cybernetics and Paradigms otherwise…all our hard work will be wasted.





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