A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

SELF-CONFIDENCE MUST BE BUILT STEP-BY-STEP ■ 41
DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCE THROUGH POSITIVE MENTAL IMAGERY
One of the most important exercises you can do to develop your self-confidence
is to practice positive mental imagery. Just as negative images can
hurt your self-confidence, positive images can help your self-confidence
significantly. I never knew just how much until I read about Dr. Charles
Garfield’s work years ago in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. The article
told of Dr. Garfield’s research regarding what he called a kind of “mental
rehearsal.” Garfield found that the more effective executive speakers
frequently practiced mental rehearsal for speeches, whereas less effective
executive speakers did not. I began to formally practice some of his techniques
myself, and to teach them to my students.
Garfield was also an amateur weightlifter. He later wrote a book, Peak
Performers (Avon Books, 1986), in which he described how Soviet scientists
got him to bench press 365 pounds, more weight than he ever imagined
he could handle. They did this by putting him in a state of extreme
relaxation and then having him see himself making this difficult lift. He
not only lifted the 365-pound weight, but was also astounded to discover
it easier to lift than a much lighter weight he had lifted earlier, which he
thought was the maximum weight he could ever lift. 7
Today, the technique that the Soviets used <strong>with</strong> Garfield is well known
to psychologists in a variety of fields, not just sports. It is possible because
part of the mind believes what you tell it, whether it is true or not. So, in a
state of extreme relaxation, meditation, or self-hypnosis, your mind will
believe the images you put there. When no longer in this state, you will
often be able to do what you imagined. This is because you have the selfconfidence
to do those things which you previously thought were impossible.
However, this comes <strong>with</strong> one major caveat: you will not be able to do
things which are contrary to physical laws of nature. For example, you can
see yourself flying like Superman, but if you jump off a building in an
attempt to imitate him, you are going to have an unpleasant surprise.
Still, there is much that you can do <strong>with</strong> mental imagery, and this kind
of imaging tends to become reality in a number of cases. This is why many
physicians teach patients <strong>with</strong> cancer and other terminal diseases imagery
techniques. By using them, the patient sees the cancer cells being destroyed
in his or her mind.
I once heard Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive
Thinking, relate how he had helped a girl who wanted to find a suitable