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What is Self-Concept?

Self-concept has many definitions but they all have the same meaning, which is, your perception of your own self and of your own abilities. When I ask you to describe yourself in one page, you will dump all what you think about yourself. The way you view your capabilities is called "Self-concept".

Examples of Self concept could be:

“I am a sociable person”
“I can solve any problem”
“I am fat”
“I am unattractive”
“I am clumsy”
“I am uncontrollable”

Your Self-Concept affects your whole life

The most dangerous thing about having a distorted self-concept is that your subconscious mind always works to fulfill yourself concept. For example, if you see yourself as unattractive person then you won’t try to be attractive. This self-concept may hinder you from trying to follow a healthy diet, make you buy unattractive clothes and even force you act in an unattractive way!!

Trying to become attractive without changing your self-concept will never work. You will feel that there is something artificial in your behaviour. If you want to change something about yourself then know that you must begin by changing your self-concept.

If your self-concept states that you are clumsy, you will always act accordingly to that even if you try your best to conceal that side of you. The self-concept is stored in the subconscious mind. The harder you try to do something that doesn’t match with your self-concept, the more you will find your attempts useless.

The salesperson who has the self-concept of being a failure will always fail to meet his target. The guy that has the self-concept of lacking confidence will always act in a non confident way even if he tries hard. The athlete whose self-concept states that he doesn't have the ability to win the gold medal will never get it.

To summarize this, it's almost impossible to challenge your self-concept and that’s why you should try to change it instead of challenging it.

Self-Concept and Behavior

Suppose that someone has the self-concept of being persistent, how do you think will this impact his behavior? This person will keep trying to reach his goals even if he failed hundreds of times. On the other hand, if his self-concept was that he is a victim, he would have gave up after the first try!!!

So it's all about the self-concept. Having the self-concept of being motivated will result in making you motivated, and having the self-concept of being successful will result in making you successful.

When you upgrade your self-concept, your subconscious mind will change everything accordingly in order to fulfill that self-concept, so just change your self-concept and let your subconscious mind do the adjustments.

The self concept and breakups

Some people fail to recover from breakups quickly just because they have the self concept of being broken or of not being resilient, in my book How to get over anyone in few days i described how getting engaged in repetitive behavior that reinforces the self concept of being broken can prevent you from recovering fast. After a breakup you should reinforce the self concept of being resilient and solid in order to recover within a short period of time.

How to change your Self-concept

Self concept is learned. You are not born with it and that’s why you can change it. Your self-talk is what forms your beliefs, and your beliefs are the pillars that hold your self-concept. So in order to change your self-concept you should first question all of the beliefs you have about yourself. You should then discard false ones then adjust your self-talk in order not to form additional false beliefs.

Questioning the old beliefs can be done by using CBT and hypnosis. The first is a method of therapy that can be used in questioning the irrational belief that someone has about himself while the second is a method that can help in changing a belief completely that you have about yourself.

Final Words on Self-concept

You are what you think. So if you want to change something about yourself start first changing your self-concept and then you will find that the change is happening effortlessly.

2knowmyself is neither a simple article website nor it’s a place where you will find shallow fixes, but it’s a place where you will find effective techniques that are backed up by psychological experience and are presented in obvious and understandable format. If you think that this is some kind of marketing hype then see what other visitors say about 2knowmyself.The book How to make someone fall in love with you was released by 2knowmyself.com; the book will dramatically increase your chance of letting someone fall in love with you.

Want to know more?

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