Your Powerful InnerVision

Super Bowl XLIX was the most watched broadcast in U.S. TV history to date. NBC announced on the Monday following the broadcast that the New England Patriots 28 to 24 last second victory over the Seattle Seahawks drew an average audience of 114.4 million viewers. One 30 second commercial during the big game cost a cool $4.5 million. That’s an average of $150,000 per second. Is that expensive? It’s not expensive to the advertiser who understands the power of the programming and reaching their target audience. They understand the power of a 30 second commercial. Americans are consuming more media content than ever before, from a combination of traditional television and online content. Does this media consumption affect our beliefs and behaviors? You bet your bippy it affects the way you think and act.

What is the power of the programming you watch every day? The value for you is even far greater than $150,000 per second, it is priceless. Every waking second you are creating and watching powerful content. Research has proven that the conscious mind cannot distinguish the difference between a real event and one that is vividly imagined. Your imagination, beliefs, and emotional connection create your reality. The conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time positive or negative. You are the producer who sits in the control room and decides what screen to watch. You are responsible for what you create and see.

One of the most powerful aspects of this internal programming is your self-concept, the “inner vision” of how you see yourself. Your self-concept has three components to it. So, to illustrate the power of your self-concept, I liken it to three internal television networks currently being broadcast to your mind. I call these networks your “InnerVision.”

SIC is your Self-Ideal Channel: This network is the culmination of all of the men and women you have admired throughout your life; this is the ideal person you would like to be. This is your internal role model. To you, this person has no weaknesses, no personal problems, and a character of steel. Grab your remote and tune in to SIC and take a look. What kind of person do you really want to be? Throughout our lives we choose heroes, role models, and mentors to pattern our lives after. As we concentrate on their strengths, qualities, and attributes, and practice them, they actually affect our perspective and become part of who we are. Becoming the best version of you begins by watching your SIC and modeling your life after the qualities and strengths you want to be.

Ask yourself these powerful questions and write down your responses.

What characteristics and strengths do you admire most?

What do you want to become?

The Law of Concentration says that whatever you dwell upon grows. Whatever you think about over and over again eventually grows into your reality. We must discipline ourselves to watch more SIC. Concentrate on the person you want to become. Begin adopting these strengths and qualities. Now, imagine if you become the composite of all of the strengths you’ve written down. The starting of becoming a better you is to see yourself as this new self-ideal and begin acting the part. As you watch hours of SIC you will become more of that person you so vividly imagine.

ImageTV is your Self-Image Channel: This programming is the person you see yourself as right now; you see your perceived strengths and weaknesses very clearly. Although, this may not be the way others see you. This is your inner minor. Sometimes this mirror becomes distorted like the mirrors in a fun house. You might see a person who is too fat, too tall or too small. In the Book of Proverbs it says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This can be good, but it can also hold you back and subject you to less than you could be. If you think you are too fat, then this thought becomes your personal reality. If you think you are too tall, then you are too tall; your perceptions are everything. The Law of Belief says that whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality; whatever you believe is true for you.

Now, grab your remote and switch over to ImageTV. What do you see? Take a moment to write out a clear description of your self-image.

How do you see yourself?

What are your greatest characteristics or strengths?

What are your most limiting inabilities or weaknesses?

You feel good or positive about yourself when you are behaving consistent with your believed positive characteristics and strengths. For example, if being loving is one of your greatest desired characteristics, you will feel positive about yourself when you are being loving. On the flip side, you feel bad and negative about yourself when you are behaving according to your limiting beliefs. If you believe that yelling at someone you care about is who you are and you don’t like that behavior this will cause you to feel inadequate, unworthy, and guilty.

What network do you watch most of the time? SIC or ImageTV? What do you dwell on most of the time, your character aspirations or your limiting beliefs? Remember, you are the producer. You are calling the shots from the control room. Watch more ideal, positive content and shift your mind away from what you fear and what holds you back.

I admit, early in my childhood, I didn’t have the most positive self-image. My friends were great athletes, honor students, and the attractive kids. I saw myself as the “last one picked for the team,” a lousy student, and that I had a face for radio. I believed I was this person and so I acted consistent with my self-image. Fortunately, I began watching less ImageTV when I was about twelve years old. I heard that still, small voice and felt a prompting to stretch my comfort zone and begin entertaining audiences. To this point in my life I was too afraid to lead silent prayer in a phone booth. If you were born after 1990, Google “phone booth” to know what I am talking about.

I entertained as a one man comedy magic show. By age 14, I was elected vice-president of the local professional chapter of entertainers with peers three times my age. A powerful seed started growing inside of me. I began believing that I was good at something. The better I performed, the less I felt like an impostor. The self-defeated, dejected nobody was being replaced by a character people liked and respected. My true friends accepted my unique gift. I started seeing myself in a different mirror. I saw myself as confident, competent, and likeable. I had powerful mentors and coaches in the business who gave me a new vision.  I began seeing who I could really be.

Since then, I have performed as different characters in front of tens of thousands of people in several countries. My self-image began changing as a result of focusing on my talents and strength and not choosing to become a victim of my limiting beliefs and weaknesses. My experiences as an entertainer are some of the most powerful of my life. The change in my self-image affected every other aspect of my life. My confidence grew in every other part of my life. Dr. Maxwell Maltz, in his book Psycho Cybernetics said, “All of our actions, feelings, behavior, and abilities are consistent with our self-image. Our self-image is our mental opinion of ourselves.”

We are usually as successful or unsuccessful as we expect to be. We don’t always get what we want, but we usually get what we expect and deserve from ourselves. You are receiving in your life what you expect.  Concentrate and think of the person you want to be and keep your mind off of the person you doubt and fear.

SEP is your Self-Esteem Programming: This governs one critical factor, how much you like yourself.  Please, don’t confuse self-liking with conceit or an egocentric attitude. Self-liking means you accept who you are and you get along with yourself. A narcissistic attitude is actually a cover up for feelings towards oneself. People who suffer from these conditions are overcompensating for low levels of self-esteem.

What causes you to feel good about yourself?

What do you do that causes you to like yourself?

Perhaps it is doing a great job on a project at work, keeping a promise to a friend, keeping a promise to yourself, giving of yourself unselfishly, doing more than is expected, or utilizing a talent to its fullest.

If there is a big gap between who you want to be, your self-ideal, and the person you see yourself as, your self-image, you probably don’t like yourself very much. Self-esteem is the feeling of being happy with who you are and unconditional acceptance of yourself. Self-esteem is feeling good about being YOU. Acceptance, hope, and happiness come from inside of you. The media would have you believe that these things can be bought in a lotion, potion, or cream. You can give anything away that you don’t possess within yourself first. If you cannot develop acceptance on the inside, you will never find it on the outside. Positive, solid self-esteem is a precious gift. It needs to be guarded as if it were an armored truck with a million dollars in it. Never allow anyone to rob you of your self-esteem.

If a child during his or her formative years develops solid self-esteem, they are less likely to become involved in drugs, vandalism, promiscuity, and crime. When they truly learn to appreciate who they are and like themselves, they are less likely to sabotage their goals and dreams or destroy their own life.

Change Your InnerVision

The great thing about your InnerVision is that you can only watch one network at a time, I’m sorry you don’t have picture-in-picture or multi-screens in your head. The Law of Substitution says your conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time, positive or negative. You can replace a thought you don’t want with a positive thought. It is under your control, if you choose. If you are watching your self-image network and you see a person you don’t like, then hit your remote and start watching your self-ideal network to become the person that you want to be. When you continually hold positive pictures on your InnerVision, your subconscious mind works to bring the visualized experience into your physical reality.

Our minds are like a stage and we cannot have more that one scene occupying the stage at once. Take responsibility and kick off the bad actor and hire a winner.  Substitute good, positive thoughts for self-defeating ones.  Because you are a totally responsible person and are in full control of your life, you are the producer of your InnerVision. You sit in the chair of the control booth and you call the shots every day. You can create an award winning epic or you can create a tragedy. It’s up to you. Change your internal programming and you’ll change your life. If you focus your mind on the ideal person you want to be, you will be driven from within to become more of your ideal self.

What do you think about most of the time? 

Someone once said, “Tell me what a man thinks about when he doesn’t have to think and I’ll tell you what kind of man he is.” Are you thinking about what you want from life, or are you dwelling on your doubts, fears, and weaknesses? Whatever you dwell upon grows. If you really want to be, have, or do more than you are right now, then you have to change your InnerVision. When you want to change something in the outside world, you first must change something on the inside. Everything changes when you do. You are not forever condemned to live the way you are now living. You can do more and be a better version of you. You can lose those unwanted pounds. You can earn more money. You can strengthen your relationships.

You are responsible for the quality of the content you watch every day. The starting point is take conscious control of the content you are creating and viewing. Stay away from negative programming and be focused on what you want to be, have, and do and then see much more of it.

“Success is a state of mind.
If you want success, start thinking
of yourself as a success.”
Joyce Brothers