Imagination rules the world, imagination is more important then knowledge, it is the preview of life’s coming attractions. All winners in life think about and develop a positive self image, winners see the act of winning before it ever happens. Winners act like winners, imaging with pictures, feelings and words the roles they want to play.Successful people give themselves a preview of the coming attractions, what you see is what you get, and who you feel like is who you really are. You know its not what you are that holds you back, its what you think your not.  You see we don’t act in accordance with reality, we act in accordance with our perception of reality. How we feel about ourselves is everything, for all that we ever do, or all we aspire to do in life will be based on that all important self concept or self image.Your self image is a major player in the improvement of your personal development. The self image is the fundamental key to understanding all of human behavior.  If you change your self image, you change your personality and your behavior. You can work on your outside but it will have no effect on your inner self image.In personal development, the building of your personal self image is crucial to having any true self improvement. You have to feel strong and secure on the inside. What you see in the minds eye is what you get.  If you see yourself as being a loser, unable to reach any significant achievements, failure will be a sure thing, you have destined yourself to losing.Everyone develops a self image of every talent, every characteristic, and every performance.  Images such as….”I am a lousy cook,” or “I am no good at sports,” or “I can’t do anything right,” or maybe some positive self images like, “I am great at working with computers,” or “I can do anything I put my mind to,” or “I am skilled and knowledgeable at my job.”The way you define yourself is through your self image. Each of us is controlled by these mental pictures that we form. We can’t outgrow these images we formed, we can only set new limits within which we must live.  Our self image determines the kind and scope of a person that we are in every walk of life, it is our life controlling mechanism. Our self image determines the level of our personal development.Our self image dwells at the sub-conscious level of thinking, and although the term sub-conscious mind has been used, often inaccurately by non professional people, it is much more correct to think of it not as a mind, but rather a level of awareness with very special characteristics and abilities.  The conscious level of thinking is responsible for collecting information from the environment, storing it in the memory cells, and making rational decisions.  The sub-conscious level of thinking, is responsible for autonomic body control, such as breathing and heartbeat, and the storage of information and creative goal seeking.The conscious mind cannot make a decision without clearing it with the sub-conscious mind. The sub-conscious mind checks your memory bank including the self image and replays the available data back to the conscious mind for taking action.  Your sub-conscious mind controls the conscious level of thinking. The information in the sub-conscious mind is permanent, it is a lifetime of stored events and information. You can never erase your sub-conscious mind but you can overwrite it with new and challenging information and events.To improve your personal development it’s your self image that needs some adjusting and this needs to be ingrained in your sub-conscious mind.  It’s important to know that every imagined experience, repeated vividly is also recorded in the brain before the event has ever really taken place. So we have a replay and a pre-play ability, a feedback and a feed forward capability in the mind, and every moment of everyday we program our sub-conscious mind and self image to work for us or work against us.Since our sub-conscious mind is only for storage, it strives to meet the objective and goals we set, whether negative or positive, false or true, wrong or right, dangerous or not dangerous, losing or winning.  It’s sole function is to follow instructions based upon previous inputs and to respond automatically.  Your sub-conscious self image can’t distinguish between an actual experience or one that you have only vividly imagined, it stores emotional fantasy’s as your own reality.  This is why we are full of prejudices, full of fears and Easter bunny’s, learned from our parents, peers, and the media, which simply are not true.Many of your everyday decisions are based upon information about yourself, which has been stored as truth, but is just a figment of your own imagination shaded by your own environmental conditioning.  This shows the importance of training and re-training your sub-conscious mind, in your journey for improved personal development.You see your a slave to your sub-conscious mind and your developed self image. If you try to make a change to yourself, using only your conscious mind and will power, the change will most likely only be temporary.  Whenever your conscious mind and your sub-conscious mind come in conflict, your sub-conscious mind has the best chance of winning.  To improve your personal development you must work on your sub-conscious mind, this is where your self image has been developed and where it has to be worked on.Any personal change in your behavior begins with change in your self image, and this can be accomplished by defeating your fears and through strong desire.  Your behavior and achievement level is usually consistent with your self image. If you perform below your self image level, you will naturally feel uncomfortable, and make any necessary adjustments to try and do better next time.  If you happen to perform to well or too high above your self image level, tension will automatically bring your performance back down to where you think you belong.This explains temporary fleeting success, and choking under pressure. This is all behavioral actions based on your personal self image.  Working to impress new beliefs upon your sub-conscious mind, is personal development in action, that is if you are striving to improve upon your self image.  Winners in life take it on themselves to enlarge their self image, winners dwell on and hold the self image of that person they would most like to become. They get a vivid, clear, emotional, sensory picture of themselves as if they have already achieved their new role in life.In building your own personal development y
ou chose to see yourself as the person you want to be, you envision success, and achievement, your belief in yourself has grown to the level you want it to be.  You should always strive to be better, take control of your mind through mental pictures, tell yourself you are a winner and a winner you will be.To follow are some personal exercises to help build a more positive self image.First, set aside 20 to 30 minutes a day, in the morning, in the evening, or at lunch and imagine yourself achieving and enjoying your most important personal creative desires as if you were previewing three television short subjects.Picture one sequence accomplishing a professional triumph, maybe a promotion, or a bonus, or an awards ceremony. Picture another scene promoting a family success, maybe a special outing, a family reunion, or a highly anticipated vacation. Then vision a personal success, possibly a fitness goal or completion of a continuing educational class, something that you personally accomplished that you might have had reservations about in the past.Get the actual sensation and clear image of each event, fill your vision with emotion, feel the pride in your achievements, there is no stopping your personal development when you fill your mind with commitment.Another technique for improving your self image is to read or listen to a biography every month of someone who has reached the top in your profession, or in your major hobby, or someone you have admired for his or her own courage. As you read or listen, imagine yourself as that person, having everyone of those qualities you so admire.Finally, while you are relaxing and visioning your own imagined triumphs try listening to some slow inspirational mood music in the background, the process of relaxing to the music will open a subjective window to your sub-conscious level of thinking and make you more receptive to your own creative images.  Remember your sub-conscious mind excepts that as a fact that which you vividly, and repeatedly imagine, your creative imagination rules your world.  The development a positive self image is one of the most important keys to improving your personal development, and truly becoming a winner in life.Author: Howard G PlattArticle Source: EzineArticles.com