Everyone needs a PSI. The question is, why and how good is yours? PSI will directly impact your career, your finances, and your future.
Believe me; it works like magic; I have seen people full of NSI (negative self-image) in high school, and it was sad to see how they get demotivated and dropped out one by one.
A major part of being successful is believing that you can be successful! Success involves three major areas; health, wealth, and wisdom (education).
PSI is the belief in yourself. It is so important that the experts on thought and personal performance say success is impossible without it, and I totally agree.
Under the wisdom area, you need a good PSI. So what is a PSI? It stands for Positive Self Image. An important question to ask is why do so many people have an NSI – Negative Self Image? Once you understand this, you can work on strengthening your PSI.
The success you deserve
PSI is rooted in whether you believe you deserve success. Interestingly, most people believe they can achieve success however far more people lack the belief they deserve it.
PSI is rooted in your emotions and what you believe about yourself? It is difficult to improve your PSI through logical and rational arguments. Perhaps you have a highly stressful job that influences your self-image negatively.
Then, you may well benefit from a more relaxed, slow-paced job. You’ll be amazed how such a job change can help you improve your PSI.
In his book The Midas Method, Stuart Goldsmith gives an example of conversation of what we say as opposed to what we mean.
Person A, ‘Skiing is for rich people, as opposed to the likes of us. Pity really because I’m sure I would be good at it.’
What this means, if we translate it using a PSI analysis, is:
‘I’m a second-class citizen, and I’m going to make sure I stay that way. I am confident in my abilities, though.’
So the issue here is that we have a person with a low PSI and a good belief in their abilities. What this person needs to do is work on their PSI.
The really important message to take away from this is the person needs a PSI and a positive belief in his or her abilities, like a radical encouragement course.
PSI and NSI are separate. Increasing one will never lead to an increase in the other. So you need to spend time understanding where Negative Self Image (NSI) comes from and how to reverse it.
NSI also doesn’t help when you want to support, for example, your child’s learning efforts. In some coming posts, we will explore where NSI comes from and how to strengthen it. It also has to do with fear of success or fear of failure. It all works together.
Success is 50% attitude
Improving your financial planning and budgeting means you are serious about becoming more successful. Let’s see how two important parts of your attitude affect this and encourage your self-belief.
Successful people in any field have a higher than average amount of two things:
- Positive Self Image (PSI)
- i-CAN attitude
How to feed your own ego
I love feedback. Working from home, writing, there’s very little feedback throughout the day. It’s mostly me, myself, and I, without no one else to cheer me on, motivate, complicate, criticize, or aid.
Sometimes I’ll chore away at all this business for six hours, eight hours, even ten hours straight, and then I’ll feel deflated. Why deflated? Why not accomplished since I’ve accomplished so much?
With this type of work, nothing is ever truly done. There is always some other string to tie or untie and tie again tighter.
There also isn’t someone telling you what to do next, what a good job you’ve done, and what you can improve on for next time. That’s part of being self-employed. So, to keep up morale in the company, I’ve started doing that for myself.
Compliment yourself
The process goes as follows: Once any task is completed, I get up and walk around. Do a non-work-related task, like make a hot chocolate, put on my grad dress, and finish off my four daily push-ups. Anything to break up the rhythm and remove myself from the prior mindset.
Sit back down. Congratulate myself for having finished. Now, I objectively (as possible) map out what I did well and what I can improve on the next time.
I make whatever revisions that apply, and only now do I check it off my list. After a period of a day to a couple of days elapses, I return to the work and review it once more. Then I cross it off the list entirely.
By actively checking and crossing items off the list, I feel that sense of accomplishment that motivates me to complete the tasks I least like.
By giving myself moments to relax or switch trains of thought, I feel less drained. Instead of being my own worst critic, I try to also be my own best cheerleader, because balance is important. If I’m not going to compliment me, who is? What do you do to stay motivated and clear-headed?