In reading Brendan Bruchard’s book, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives that Make You Feel Alive, I came across a statement that rocked my mind. It rocked me in that I have always believed what he says to be true, but I was never quite able to articulate it in the concisely profound way that he does. He says, “In the end our self-image is a self-fulfilling prophecy – remember, our humans drive makes us behave in accordance with that image, so if you’re running your life based on an old, outdated, past self-image shaped by others’ opinions and actions, then you’re in big trouble.”
What prophecy are setting yourself up to be fulfilled?
We are all living a self-image that we have allowed to be set up in our minds. Often our self-image is formed as a result of events and people of our past instead of by a standard of congruency that we consciously establish within our own self-identity. Bruchard goes on to say that “you can’t create congruence with something you’ve never defined, so it’s important to consciously create a unifying self-image of who you are and who you want to be.”
Have the courage to craft the self-image that you want to define your identity. You may have to open old wounds to understand where the self-image you currently subscribe to has come from so that you can redirect it and re-define it. Take ownership over your self-image. Set new standards for yourself for who you are and who you want to be, and start living life consciously aware that the way you see yourself has an immediate correlation on how the wonder of your life unfolds.
Let none of us forget Bruchards words that “self-image is a self-fulling prophecy.”