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When we change our beliefs in a given area of our lives, we begin to experience change in that
area. If your overall self-concept, your general summary of your beliefs could be called your
“Major Concept”, then you are also equipped with a series of “Minor Concepts”, that control
thought, behaviour and results in the individual areas of your life. Here are some examples of the
minor concepts you may have :
· One for each of the roles you occupy

· How you appear to other people
· Yourself as a parent

· How popular you are

· How good you are at your job
· How much money you are capable of earning

· How you look
· How you perform in certain areas

· How you respond to various situations

There are as many minor concepts as there are roles you occupy and specific thoughts you
have about yourself.
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 your
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.