Control, Influence, Accept (for now) by Dan Moore

Author:Dan Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Forefront Books
Published: 2023-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

18 https://people.com/music/paul-mccartney-reflects-on-how-his-late-mother-became-his-greatest-muse/.

CHAPTER 7 SELF-IMAGE

Self-image is exactly what it sounds like: it’s how we see—or image—ourselves.

We will spend a lot of time on this subject, because the way we see ourselves has an enormous impact on what we believe we can (or can’t) do. Our current self-image is what it is: something we should Accept (For Now). But there are specific things we can Control that, over time, can Influence it—for the better.

Just because self-image is how we see ourselves doesn’t mean we see ourselves accurately; a few people see themselves as more capable in some way than they actually are. Most of us unfortunately see ourselves as less capable than we actually are.

Perhaps the most vivid story I’ve heard regarding the impact of changed self-image is that of Viktor Serebriakoff. Born in a poor part of London to a Russian émigré father and a mother who spoke with a pronounced Cockney accent, Viktor’s own enunciation of English was tortured and difficult for people to understand. Combined with a certain distracted dreaminess, this made him very unpopular with his teachers, who called him “untrainable.”

His parents pulled him from school when he was barely a teenager, and it seemed that Viktor was now on a road to nowhere. He took a laborer’s job, making a laborer’s wage, working in a sawmill. He saw himself as dull, possibly even as stupid.

World War II required every able-bodied person’s service, and Viktor did his patriotic duty and enlisted in the British army. Among the enlistment requirements were various tests of intelligence. When Viktor’s tests were scored, the administrators were shocked to see him off the charts in intelligence. (While IQ tests were not in use at that time, it has since been estimated that his test results showed Viktor Serabriakoff had an IQ in excess of 160 points.)

When this was explained to Viktor, it didn’t immediately sink in. His mindset was strongly rooted in his perceived lack of mental ability. Over time, he grew to accept that he was not an idiot but was, in fact, a genius. Among other things, he became an inventor and eventually a manager in the very same sawmill that had employed him at a laborer’s wage. He was the first chairman of the International Mensa Society. He authored several books. I bought one titled Astounding Puzzles. The only thing I can understand is the title!

So the question is: What changed in Viktor Serabriakoff? Did he become more intelligent, more capable? No. What changed was the way he saw himself. It took a long time for him to change his self-view. No doubt there were times he felt the effort of self-education would simply not be worth it. It must have been immensely uncomfortable to go from being that guy who was considered stupid and untrainable to being on the world stage as a genius. Viktor’s Brainset must have been screaming for him to get back into the safety of anonymity!

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