We all have our own Mental Models, which are the organizations of related ideas in our memory, representing a person, object, idea, groups, etc.  These mental models that we have are what makes you, you.

Our mental models are created through our own life experiences, however, there is a difference between what we actually experience and what we tell ourselves what happened.

In psychology we call what we believe to be true in an experiment an hypothesis, then the hypothesis is tested through different experiments.  Some, times it is the hypothesis is proven and it is disproven. Sometimes there are things that we come to believe about ourselves that we never test to see if they are accurate.

A big part of changing how we view ourselves is to connect with our mental models and test them.

Can you really not do what you have told yourself all these years?

Are those negative things that you believe about yourself, really true?

Here is an exercise to help you figure out what are your mental models about yourself.

On a piece of paper number it 1-20, then on each line write “I am”, after you have written I am on all 20 lines then fill in the blanks.  After you are done, review the list.

What does it tell you about how you see yourself?

What model should you test to see if it is true?