Fotografía de la etapa de trato directo regulada en la Ley de Sicreci

When I make an image of myself, I am both the maker of the image, and that which the image represents. I am both the subject and object in this process, in a closed loop that both refers to itself and acts on itself. This is an extremely powerful aspect of self-concept—for good or ill. An every-day example of recursion is what is called a "self-fulfilling prophecy." For instance, if someone feels confident about a task, they can begin doing it with all their personal resources, and as it goes well, they can feel even more confident, in a positive cycle.

But if someone worries about getting nervous before making a presen-tation, that worrying actually creates exactly what the person wanted to avoid. The feeling of anxiety makes them worry even more, in a vicious cycle. That results in their doing a poor job, and that will make them worry even more the next time they have to give a presentation. So recursion can be either positive or negative, depending on what kind of goal is imagined—

and especially when the goal is negated—not wanting to get anxious.

If I have an idea about a rock, that may affect how I think and act toward the rock, but it doesn't change the qualities of the rock itself. But when I have an idea about myself, that does loop back and affect my atti-tudes and behaviors. If I think of myself as clumsy, this will predispose me to actually act more clumsily than I otherwise would. I will tend to notice the times when I stumble, or throw a ball awkwardly, and this noticing will tend to support and reinforce the belief. If I think of myself as graceful and skillful, I will tend to notice when I throw the ball well, supporting that belief. Your self-concept continually maintains and recreates itself in a cir-cular loop.

A human being is a physical system, but it is also an information sys-tem, and your self-concept exists in your mind as part of the information system. Recursion in an information system is only as slow as the speed of

transmission of information. While the speed of transmission in human nerves is a good deal slower than in a computer, it is still very, very fast, on the order of a fraction of a second.

When someone makes an image of himself as someone who has the ability and determination to learn how to eat well and exercise, etc.—or what-ever else is required for him to become slim—that change in his internal experience can be virtually instantaneous, because it exists in his mind. Of course that certainly won't make him slim in an instant! That is something that takes a certain amount of time to happen in the physical world, but the change in understanding that makes it possible is almost instantaneous.

We have been focusing on the beliefs that you have about yourself.

However, you also have beliefs about your surroundings and other people, and it's important to realize that a troublesome belief could be about your-self, or your world—or both. World beliefs and self-beliefs are often recip-rocal, depending on how you look at it. For instance, if I think that the world is overwhelming, that could be the same as saying that I think of myself as powerless. Many problems that initially appear to be problems with someone's world can be much more easily solved through a change in their self-concept.

Summary

The power of self-concept is based on a number of elements working together. Your self-concept is a very large generalization about yourself that creates a continuity that spans time and space, affecting nearly every-thing you do. It is also a feed-forward system that is oriented toward the future, and that recursively acts upon itself, creating and maintaining itself very rapidly.

As with all forms of power, the power of self-concept can be creative or destructive, depending on how it is directed. Each of us has some kind of self-concept, some idea of who we are. Clearly some people's self-con-cepts don't work very well, and this limits them to a small fraction of their potential. Other people's self-concepts are a solid foundation for a suc-cessful and satisfying life, even when confronting significant difficulties, physical handicaps, or environmental limitations.

The content of your self-concept is the result of selecting a small sam-ple of events from the wealth of your experience, and identifying with it.

"This is who I am." The recursion and feed-forward elements of the self-concept continue this selective process, so our self-beliefs tend to reinforce themselves through further selective perception, behavior, and memory. A limiting belief will tend to become more limiting, while an enabling belief will tend to become more enabling. A change in your self-concept rapidly

The Power of Self-concept 29 creates a reorganization that is very widespread and pervasive, affecting a great many aspects of your life. The details of exactly how this occurs, and how to change limiting self-beliefs into more empowering ones will be the focus of the rest of this book. But first let's look at the criteria that will ensure that your self-concept will be effective, and do its job well.