Obviously, due to my profession, I’m interested in the words people use. And this interest covers not just the written word, but the spoken word as well.

Plus, besides being a writer, I’m also very into personal success, self-improvement, business motivation, and that sort of thing. It’s evident in my business beliefs, practices, and even in my writing (a full third of Start and Run a Real Home Based Business was devoted to the business mindset.) In short, give me something by Tony Robbins (etc) and I eat it up.

So combining these two things (words, and personal development), I am of the definite opinion that the words you use to describe yourself and such play a huge role in how your life plays out.

Let me give you an example:

I was talking with someone (whom I’ll leave unidentified) the other day. He has a “professional trades” type business, and he’s marginally busy during the building season, and starves in the winter. Essentially, he barely eeeks out a living. Part of the reason he starves is because he does almost *nothing* to market himself, etc. He just doesn’t see the correlation between marketing and the phone ringing.    

But I think the larger reason he’s not successful is his overall self-image. Two things he said the other day really stand out in my mind in this regard.

The first thing he said was mentioned when we were talking about the economy. He said, in a somewhat disgusted manner, that “things are set up so the little guy can’t make it” (he was obviously referring to himself and others like him.)

This struck me as somewhat profound. Because personally, I would NEVER see myself as “a little guy” to be influenced by how “things are set up”. First of all, I’m not a “little guy” in any area of my life (so you “male enhancement” magic pill people can stop e-mailing me), but this goes double for how I see myself in a business / social standing sense. Not only am I relevant, I see myself as a shining star.

Whether my self-image view is shared by others is not important to me - I think I am, and I conduct myself and my business that way. And to me, it pays off.

The second thing my friend said was in response to my views on the middle class. Essentially, I feel the “huge” middle class in the US was artificially created by WW2, the GI Bill, the Baby Boom, and the fact that the US was the only real manufacturer left standing after the war (I’ll expand on this in another post in the upcoming weeks).

Basically, I said  that before WW2, people were (in general terms) either rich or poor, and it will be that way again. So my friend says “well, I know which side of that equation I’ll be on” (meaning poor).

Again, it interested me. He sees himself as being poor. Hence the self-fulfilling prophecy we learned in Psych 101 comes into play - he sees himself as being poor, so he will be (and is.)

I find this stuff fascinating, because the older I get, the more I see it come into play - people with healthy outlooks and positive self images typically do well in life. Those with poor images almost always do poorly.

So, how do you see yourself?