Self-Image: The Making (or Breaking) Point of Every Freelance Writer

3/15/2017

By William Ballard

I have been reading Dr. Maxwell Maltz book, "The New Psycho-Cybernetics" (AFF), and have discovered a lot of information about the self-image that I think would benefit each of you a great deal.

Especially those freelance writers who are just starting out on their writing journey -- (I remember what it was like when I first started).

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Why should anyone continue to put up with living life by the prescription of fear, frustration, and self-doubt?

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Self-Image: The Key to Living Your Ideal Freelance Writing Life

Dr. Maxwell Maltz paints a very vivid picture of how we put self-imposed limits on ourselves. It is these limits that we put on ourselves that keep us from actually using all of our God-given potential. Because of this, we are not able to operate at our peak performance levels.

What exactly is this thing called "self-image"? Well, simply put, it's the image we have of ourselves. And, consequentially, all of your actions, feelings, behaviors, and even your abilities/skills, all work in harmony with the image that you have impressed upon yourself.

Have a look at the following illustration excerpted from Dr. Maxwell Maltz's book:

Photo Credit: Excerpt From "The New Psycho-Cybernetics" Book

These two boxes represent the mental world we live in. The line farthest out (the solid one) represents real or realistic limits. The dot in the middle represents you (the most important component of this illustration). In the first box, the dotted line that is tightly confining the dot (you) represents limits that are self-imposed. The area between the dotted line and the shaded dot represents your area or range of under-utilized potential.

As you begin to become more self-aware (or consciously-aware) of your self-image, and mentally stop creating false self-imposed limits on yourself, what you are doing is mentally moving that dotted line further out towards the solid line, and you start to allow yourself permission to operate at your true potential.

You see, the truth is: The image you have yourself is the key to whether or not you will be a success or a failure. The person who has the "mediocre writer and poor business person" self-image -- whose self-image claims "I can't write well", "no one will want to pay for my ideas", "I am too scared not to be able to have a secure paycheck" -- will never be able to become a successful freelance writer (or a successful anything, for that matter). No matter how hard he/she tries to consciously oppose that self-image.

The fact of the matter is this: You can never outperform passed the boundary of your self-image. It is as if your self-image acts like a prison that keeps the real you from getting out and performing at higher levels. The only way to escape this prison is to change your self-image.

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Freelance Success From The Inside Out, Not The Outside In

The most difficult thing about our self-image is that it has a lot to do with our habits and beliefs. In fact, another of describing our self-image is by our personal paradigms.

What is a paradigm? Simply put, a paradigm is nothing more than a multitude of habits and beliefs. Just as we are able to go through what is called a "paradigm shift" (AFF), we are also able to "shift" our self-image from something negative to something positive.

One of the reasons why it seems so difficult to change habits, personalities, or just your overall life is because nearly all efforts at this thing called "change" has normally been focused more on the outside rather than the inside.

What is important to understand about everything that I am trying to get across here has nothing to do with "positive thinking", per se. You see, many people have given themselves "positive affirmations" that are focused more towards certain circumstances are particular habits or character defects such as:

"I will land that client"
"I will be more calm and relaxed in the future"
"My freelance writing business will turn out right for me"

But they never think to change the image of the person that is to accomplish these things. You see, Jesus made mention to us that we were to never put new wine in old wine skins. Positive thinking does not work as a patch that you put on the same old self-image, it only works when negative concepts of self become positive as well.

In other words, the image you have your self must be in alignment and/or work in harmony with the image of your ideal freelance writing life.

And let me remind you of something: You were created in the Image of God. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27).

With that said, I am reminded of a book I read not too long ago entitled, "More Than Grasshoppers: Reclaiming Your God-Given Identity" (AFF), by Lee Ann Alexander and her brother Joel Alexander. I highly recommend you take a look at that resource because it will bless your life.

Just know this: Even though you may be in an industry surrounded by giants (or at least that's what it may seem like right now), believe me when I tell you, YOU ARE MORE THAN A GRASSHOPPER!

Imagination: Developing The Freelance Writer's "Winner's Image" Through The Theater of The Mind

I believe it was Albert Einstein who said, "The imagination is the greatest nation in the universe." And as powerful a statement as that is, I recently heard not too long, from a respected psychologist, that it is been proven that there is more life (cell life) and wonder in the human mind than all the life and energy that makes up the cosmos.

Now, just think about that for a minute. Try to imagine (visualize) or paint a picture in your mind of all the life and energy that is out there in the vast universe. All the trillions of stars and millions of galaxies.

Once you have that image locked in place, let it begin to dive deeper and deeper into the deep reservoirs of your marvelous mind. What you have to understand is this: You are God's highest form of creation. The Scripture recorded that with everything He made, He called it good. But when it came to the creation of mankind, He said it was "very good" (perfect).

Because of the Fall of man, it is our flesh that is imperfect, but our spiritual DNA, the God part of us, is perfect. Our imagination lies within that perfected DNA. Why do I say that? Well, to answer that we have to understand what it means for God to be the Creator.

The word Creation, Creator, Create, and Creative all come from the Latin language, and it is Spiritual or Divine in nature. Gen. 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created…” i.e. called into being, all things out of nothing.

Dictionary.com defines Creating (or Create) as “to evolve from one’s own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.” Now, personally, I am not a big fan of the word “evolve”, and would rather not use that term when referencing God – the Creator of all things, but the key that I want you to grab ahold of right now is the term imagination and where it originates.

We know that God created the universe out of nothing, but was it really out of “nothing”? You see, according to Dictionary.com, creation or creating starts in the imagination. Does God have an imaginative mental faculty like we do? We are created in His image, are we not?

It is also interesting that there is a moment in the midst of the creation account that God asked Adam to name the animals. Scripture tells us that God did this because He wanted to see what Adam would name them. He [God] was curious to see how Adam would use his God-given imagination and name the animals.

The point is: He wanted Adam to use his imagination and get involved in the creation process. In short, we were all made to get involved in the work of God (Creation). I don't know about you, but that is powerful to me. It excites me. It inspires me.

Now, with all that said, Dr. Maxwell Maltz observed said in his book, "Human beings always act and feel and perform in accordance with what they imagine to be true about themselves and their environment."

There was a study done where basketball players were divided up into small groups. One group physically practiced shooting free-throws while the other group practiced mentally shooting free-throws. In other words, this second group never physically touched a ball -- just mentally envisioned themselves making the shot.

What was interesting about this study was that the group of ball players that never touched a ball made more shots than the group that practiced physically taking shots. Dr. Maxwell Maltz referred to this type of mental envisioning practice as "purchasing a ticket to the Theater of The Mind".

It was Napoleon Hill who said, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the body can achieve." And it was Bob Proctor (AFF) who said, "If you can see what you want in your mind, then you can hold it in your hand." And it was the Scriptures that told us, "As men thinketh in his heart, so is he."

According to The New Psycho-Cybernetics (AFF), when you see a thing clearly in your mind, your creative "success mechanism" within you takes over and does the job much better than you could do it by conscious effort or willpower.

In short, you imagination is truly your greatest power. There is nothing that you can't do. Your imagination is as vast as the cosmos itself. It is ourselves that create the limits, and ultimately keep us earthbound.

Notice I used the word create. I did that to make a very important point. You see, it is not a matter of not activating your imagination, it is a matter of what you choose to create with it. You are naturally going to use your imagination not matter what you do because, as Bob Proctor is noted for saying, "We think in pictures." And as the Bible told us, what we think in our heart, we become.

The thing that you have to understand about your self-image and your imagination is this: "Your present self-image was built in the workshop of the mind -- the imagination. It is where you accepted images of your past, and which grew out of interpretations and evaluations you placed on experience.", said Dr. Maxwell Maltz.

You did this negative creative work unconsciously, and it will be this same method you use to build a new self-image -- the ideal successful freelance writer that you truly are!

Set aside about 30 minutes each day where you can be alone and undisturbed. Where you can be relaxed and as comfortable as possible. Then close your eyes and exercise your imagination -- purchase your ticket to the Theater of Your Mind.

Step One: Take a pad and pen and begin to write out a description of the ideal freelance writer's life you want to have. Don't say to yourself, "I am going to act or be this way tomorrow." Instead, say to yourself, "I am going to think, act, and feel this way right now -- for 30 minutes today."

The key is to be as vivid and detailed in your description of your ideal freelance writer's life as possible. In other words, you want your mental pictures to be as close to an actual experience as possible. The way to do this is to pay close attention to the small details such as sights, sounds, or objects that you find in your imagined environment.

How much do you want to be making as a freelance writer? Imagine this amount to the exact number and believe it to be so, as if you are already that freelance writer you want to be and that you are already making that amount.

Step Two: Schedule 30 minutes out of your day, every day, for at least 30 days, to purchase your ticket to the Theater in Your Mind and begin playing, editing, replaying your movie over and over.

Step Three: Gradually get to the point, preferably within the first 10 days, where you are performing at the exact level you desire to be at, and achieving the level of results that you desire to be achieving through your daily "mental movie" breaks.

Step Four: For the remaining 11 days, play and enjoy that movie repeatedly without change.

The interesting thing about this practice, and what you have to understand about the power of your imagination, is how it effects your subconscious. You see, your subconscious must accept and obey every command that it is given to it. Your subconscious knows no difference between positive and negative or right and wrong. It accepts everything that is given to it. It cannot reject anything.

Your conscious mind is the opposite. Your conscious mind has the ability to reject or accept. So, it is your conscious mind that you must learn to overrule and take charge of. As you consciously discipline yourself to take these 30 minutes "mental movie" breaks, your imagination will begin to take over and create the image of the ideal freelance writer's life that you truly want to live and experience.

And as you follow through with this practice, you subconscious mind will begin to accept (believe) your "mental movie" as your true reality, and in so doing, will begin to manifest the mental picture you have in your mind and bring it out into your physical world.

How to Cure Your Inferiority Complex

Finally, as we close this article out, I want to help you cure the inferiority complex you may have about yourself as a new freelance writer.

Have you ever heard about of the art of hypnosis?

Let me make it perfectly clear right now, before we go any further, I do not promote or support hypnosis. The reason I am bringing this particular thing up is to simply to make a point and provide an illustration for you.

Now, I have an aunt who went through hypnosis in order to quit or get over smoking. To this day, when she is around smoking, it affects her entire system. But here is what you got to understand: She wasn't hypnotized, she was dehypnotized. You see, professional hypnotist don't hypnotized anyone, what they do is dehypnotized people from the false and negative beliefs that have lead them down the wrong road.

For instance, in Dr. Maltz book, he shares a story about an athlete who created this limited belief in his head that he could only lift 100 pounds, but was then dehypnotized of this negative belief and was told that he was very, very strong, stronger than he has ever been in his entire life.

When this athlete began to believe this truth he was then able to push passed that 100 pound barrier that he put on himself and was then able to lift 125 lbs.

The important thing to emphasize here is this: Hypnosis had nothing to do with adding strength to this athlete. What the "hypnotic" suggestion did was overcome the negative idea that had previously prevented this young man from expressing his true strength.

In other words, the athlete consciously imposed a limitation in his strength by inserting the negative belief that he could only lift 100 pounds into his subconscious and imagination. The hypnotist simply moved this mental imprisonment, and allow him to believe in his true strength, and therefore, be able to express that strength to its full potential.

Look, because you may be a new freelance writer, you may feel as if you could never be as successful as everyone else in this profession, or that you could never be able to ask for high-paying gigs without the experience needed.

That is what you imagination is for, remember? It is in your imagination -- The Theater of Your Mind or the Workshop of Your Mind -- that you create the experience you need to be able to live out the successful freelance writer life you want to have.

You may feel as if it may be "wrong" to ask for a certain amount because it is just too much money. Remember what I told you earlier, you subconscious mind cannot distinguish between right and wrong; so if you are telling your subconscious mind that something is wrong, it will believe you every time.

But here's the crazy thing: Who ever said making what you are worth is wrong? In fact, it was Christ who said, "...a labor is worthy of his hire..." (Luke 10:7). Remember, you are created in His image. And He paid the ultimate price for you on Calvary. He must have thought that you were pretty valuable and worth it all.

So, if He thought/thinks that you are/were worth a high price, then why would you not feel the same way about yourself?

God doesn't make mistakes, and remember what we said earlier, He made your spiritual DNA perfect. You are worth every dollar or hundred dollar you provide in value to your clients. All you have to do is believe and accept that, then start living it like you mean it.

Related Article: 6 Tips To Help You Take Your Writing Career to The Next Level in 2017

You have to believe that you are worth a respectable and professional rate for your freelance writing services, then you have to be courageous enough to ask for that amount, and not feel sorry about it.

Now Over to You...

What are your thoughts in regard to this topic? I am looking forward to reading what you think in the comments below.

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William Ballard 

William Ballard is the author of "The True Writer's Life," which is the book that essentially started it all for William. In conjunction with the coaching he provides for free through his blogs and articles all across the web, he also offers Personal Writing and Business Coaching where he teaches freelance writers and aspiring authors how to start, build and maintain full-time, high-earning writing careers.

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