5 Psycho-Cybernetics Exercises to Program Your Mind

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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What’s your self-image? What’s slowing you down in life? Do you have a clear picture of success?

Thinking of your mind as a machine can improve your self-image and dramatically increase your ability to feel successful and happy. Maxwell Maltz explores this idea in his book Psycho-Cybernetics.

Continue reading for five Psycho-Cybernetics exercises you can use to program your mind and take your life to the next level.

Psycho-Cybernetics Exercises

Psycho-Cybernetics is based on the theory that your mind functions according to cybernetic principles—you can program your mind to achieve success and happiness in the same way that you’d program a machine to achieve the results that you want. Maxwell Maltz suggests a number of methods to help you consciously:

Raise awareness of your current self-image
Release your limitations
Build your self-confidence
Increase your ability to achieve success

We’ve put together five Psycho-Cybernetics exercises to help you apply the book’s principles.

Exercise #1: Examine Your Self-Image

Each person has a unique self-image that determines how they interpret and interact with different people and situations. Use this exercise to better understand your self-image.

Describe a recent situation in which you and another person disagreed because you interpreted the situation differently. This could be an interaction you were both involved in, or your response to some news—you both had access to the same information.
Now that you understand more about how your self-image impacts your perception, why do you think you interpreted the situation in the way that you did?
Think about the conclusion your interpretation led you to form about the situation. Do you think your self-image helped you in this situation or worked against you?

Exercise #2: What’s Holding You Back From Success?

To improve your self-image, you first need to think about the type of person you want to be. Next, you need to replace your negative thoughts and feelings with positive ones.

Is there a particular area of life where you would like to feel more self-confident? What is it?
How has this lack of confidence affected you?
Where do you think this particular lack of self-confidence comes from? For example, was there a specific experience in your childhood that led you to feel this way?
Imagine acting confidently in this area of your life. Describe how you would feel and behave if you were confident.

Exercise #3: What Does Success Look Like to You?

Maltz claims that your current habits and behaviors are a result of your self-image. If you want to improve your self-image, you need to define new habits to support this change.

Think of two of your current habits. What do you think these habits say about the type of person you are?
Visualize yourself as successful. Does this version of yourself engage in the same habits?
What kind of habits does this successful version of yourself have?
What small step can you take today to support the successful person you want to become?

Exercise #4: Identify Your Fears

According to Maltz, your fears are a sign that you haven’t prepared yourself to meet challenges. Investigating your fears will help you to plan specific ways to overcome them.

What’s one thing you want to do but are too afraid to take action on?
Why are you afraid to take action? Try to be as specific as possible.
Now that you’ve identified your fears about taking action, pick one fear to investigate. Ask yourself if there are any rational reasons for believing that this fear could happen in reality.
If this fear did come true, what specific steps could you take to take control of the situation?

Exercise #5: What Are Your Triggers?

Maltz claims that you’re more likely to achieve success if you make the habit of replacing your negative thoughts with positive thoughts. For this exercise, think about something that triggers you into thinking negatively.

Describe a situation where you often find yourself reacting negatively.
What specific thoughts and feelings come up when you think about this situation?
Which of Maltz’s suggestions could help you plan ahead and prepare yourself to handle this situation positively? For example, you might reframe your negative thoughts to positive ones, or visualize yourself responding calmly.
Try describing the situation as rationally as possible (focus on being objective, not emotional). Does this process help you to think differently about the situation?

5 Psycho-Cybernetics Exercises to Program Your Mind