Get Better The Beatles Way
A simple method to boost confidence, enthusiasm and creativity
I have to admit it's getting better. A little better all the time.
- The Beatles
Whether we want to admit it or not, there are times when we suffer from a poor self image. Creeping moments of doubt, creative dry-spells, and/or feeling like a fraud, are all signs of an image in need of a boost.
It's hard to imagine beloved rockers The Beatles, feeling this way, but it's well-documented that the Fab Four explored many "self-help" approaches. One example is how the band used the work of French psychologist Emile Coué to overcome self-doubt and boost their confidence and creative output.
Emile Coué was widely considered to be the founder of the power of positive suggestion. As historian Mitch Horowitz writes in his article on the subject, long before self-help giants like Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins were on the scene, Coué proposed a simple formula of using mantras to reprogram your psyche to improve confidence, enthusiasm, wellness and creativity. Simply put, Coué had his patients repeat a positive mantra up to 20 times a day, and his research showed that those patients, well... "got better" – with no medicine at all. For fans of the Beatles the mantra may sound familiar: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
Can it really be that easy to curb a negative view of yourself? Coué argued yes, stating that a waning self-image "becomes unconsciously reinforced by one’s habits and self-perceptions". In other words, change your habits, change your self-perception.
So what effect did this have on The Beatles? According to Horowitz, Paul McCartney used Coué’s mantra in the infectious chorus of Getting Better “It’s getting better all the time,” and perhaps paid further tribute to Coué himself with the line: “You gave me the word, I finally heard / I’m doing the best that I can.” John Lennon also recited Coué’s formula in his 1980 song Beautiful Boy, “Before you go to sleep, say a little prayer: Every day, in every way, it’s getting better and better.”
Whether you’re in a creative slump or your self image needs a boost, start here... and then read the article below which includes a detailed step-by-step on how to practice Coué's Conscious Autosuggestion.