In Under Siege 2, an action film made in 1995, Steven Seagal, as Casey Ryback, an ex-Navy seal, fights a murderous gang of mercenaries on a train travelling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles.
Casey has the help of a nervous, black porter, with a poor self-image, called Bobby Zachs. The gang have the help of many weapons, years of villainous experience and chopper support. Millions of lives depend on Casey defeating the mercenaries.
Bobby, the porter, learns at least one useful self defence technique from Ryback's niece, Sarah, and from watching Ryback himself. Gradually his confidence in his own fighting prowess grows and he repeats a new mantra to himself: "I can do this."
This mantra or affirmation which is so similar to Obama's 'Yes, we can!' slogan changes his self-image rapidly until he can see himself as a clone of Ryback himself. At one point Ryback tells Bobby:
"Climb that ladder and commandeer the helicopter. It might not work but give it a try!"
Bobby is now so confident that he repeats: "I can do this!" as he climbs the flimsy ladder to the helicopter which is hovering over the hijacked train. He crowds out negative thoughts and doubts by the non-stop repetition of "I can do this" and climbs the swinging ladder to the chopper.
He uses the joint lock he learned earlier from Ryback's niece to overcome a leather clad, female mercenary who is a kind of super ninja. He throws her out of the helicopter and 'commandeers the helicopter' by holding a gun to the pilot's head. He can, in fact, 'Do this'!
Obviously the story is not fact but fantasy but it mirrors what can happen in real life. People try new things knowing that they may or may not work. If they do work, they can enjoy the feeling of victory and the knowledge that "I can do this." Their self-image changes.
Barack Obama has been through just such an experience. So has Lewis Hamilton, the new black world champion of Formula One racing. Their self image has now changed for ever and so has the self image of every black person throughout the world.
By changing their own self-image they have also changed the images that many white people have of black people. Black people will now be looked on with greater respect and even admiration by those white people who had not yet learned that 'the content of your character' is much more important than the colour of your skin.
Peoples' self image concerning what they can and cannot do gradually changes as they try out new things and then more and more things become possible to them. Dr. Maxwell Maltz explained this phenomenon years ago in his classic best seller, 'Psycho-Cybernetics."
"The self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment. It defines what you can and cannot do. Expand the self-image and you expand the "area" of the "possible."
Far too many of us have built up false images of our selves from childhood by being told we can or cannot do this or that. We may even create our own negative self-images by being afraid to try out new things in case we fail. If we never even try to skate, we become convinced we cannot skate.
Like Bobby Zachs, we need to try out new things to see if we can do them. Bobby, in my opinion, is the true hero of Under Siege 2. He becomes a success by expanding his self-image and the area of what is possible for him.
We can do the same. As the President Elect has suggested, when people tell us 'You can't do this!', we should reply with confidence: 'Yes, we can!"
Stuart Goldsmith in his best seller 'The Midas Method' describes how most people lived squashed and cramped lives under the glass ceiling which they believe marks out the limits of their potential.
If only they could change their thinking about themselves - their self image- they could raise this ceiling to undreamed of heights. Both Maxwell Maltz and Stuart Goldsmith preach the same message.
Stop underestimating and undervaluing yourself and your life will change dramatically. Goldsmith does not base his views on fantasy but on his own rags to riches story.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz created his self-improvement bestseller: 'Psycho-Cybernetics' at age 61, as the climax to an exceptionally varied career.
For many years, Dr. Maltz was a successful cosmetic surgeon and inspiring self-help author. He moved from treating "outer scars" to "inner scars" after realizing that cosmetic surgery did not cure the unhappiness of his patients.
The real 'surgery' needed to be performed on the self-images of his patients. Their perceptions of themselves were distorted by often false beliefs embedded in their subconscious minds from an early age.
We all need to take a knife to the false images we have of ourselves. Many of these were probably created during our childhood when we were only too ready to believe authority figures who told us who and what we were.
These authority figures often got it wrong and we ourselves may well have contributed to these false images by being too critical of ourselves.
Remember the words of Bobby Zachs and President Elect, Barack Obama. Quote them to yourself on a daily basis:
'I can do this!' and
'Yes, we can!'.
As our self-image changes so will the boundaries of our achievements.
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