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WHAT MAKES UP THE SELF CONCEPT?
Your self-concept is made up of three distinctly separate parts, namely :

v Your Self Ideal
v Your Self Image

v Your Self Esteem
Before you can truly discover your authentic self, you must be able to distinguish and separate
the different parts of your self-concept, so you can more easily differentiate between who you
would like to be, who you really are and how the differences affect you.

This is your vision of who you would really like to be in every area of your life. Your ideal self is the
perfect person you aspire to be, that you would want the world to see, with aspects of
personality you hope people will see first. Exceptionally happy men and women have a clear
vision of their ideal self and are usually doing something every day towards accomplishing it.
Again, it follows, that if you have a negative perspective of your self-ideal, it is likely that you will
attract circumstances and people into your life that reflect that.

People who allow themselves to remain unhappy over a prolonged period give little thought to
the person they want to become, they stop growing and evolving.

This is the real, authentic you as you are right now. It is the “you” that exists when nobody is
watching, the real you, as you are that looks back at you from the mirror. If your image of your
real self is under confident in particular circumstances on a particular day, your outer behaviours
will reflect your inner turmoil.

When you think about yourself as you truly are, the image you see is the value you place upon
yourself about a particular characteristic, so for this reason, the self-image could also be seen as
your self-worth.

It is perfectly possible to change your outward performance and behaviour by changing your
mental pictures of your self-image.

The term positive thinking has become over-used and clichéd through the years, and indeed
positive thoughts alone are ineffectual unless you make the feeling appear real in the conscious
and subconscious mind. Thought + Emotion is far more powerful. Imagine yourself in
circumstances where you have exuded confidence in the past, remembering those feelings,
holding onto them and combining them with supportive and constructive thoughts is a far more
effective strategy.