I read Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and I took some ideas from the book that I would like to apply to my life and also to my language learning process.

The author says that "All your actions, feelings, behaviors -even your abilities- are always consistent with your self-image", and I believe this to be true. If you can see yourself doing something, somehow, you'll always find a way to do it, and it does not matter how difficult it looks at the beginning. Like being a polyglot, for example.

The key to change is to see yourself changing, to see yourself in the new role you want to play in life. Then you will start changing your habits step by step, until you achieve the desired "new self" you want to be. I personally believe this is why many people fail to change a negative trait about themselves, because they cannot really see themselves changing.

Another interesting idea in the book is “our errors, mistakes, failures and sometimes our humiliations, were necessary steps in the learning process” and every single person who has or is learning a language can relate to this, or at least I do. (We are basically posting stuff here to make mistakes, correct them, and learn from them, so we do not make them again.) Therefore, we should see our mistakes as an opportunity to change/learn and not something to beat ourselves up over.

Finally, the last idea I took from this book is “to use a memory to trigger a positive emotion”. I believe it’s better to make a conscious effort to seek a positive memory from our past and to replay it than to let our mind wander and show us whatever it wants to and make us relive a bad experience over and over again or make us worry about the future.

Actually, I have been working on this last idea and I have posted here a few of my good memories “to kill two birds with one stone”: practice English and relive good times.

Thank you for your attention.

*I’m currently reading “Atomic Habits”, if someone has a suggestion on what I could read next, please let me know.