My interest in self theories and their influence on our lives, in terms of how we feel about our selves, what we consider possible, how we cope with setbacks and respond to situations that require us to learn began long before I knew I had a self theory! Primary and secondary school did not create possibilities for me to construe myself as a ‘successful learner’. At the time it seemed that my peers were learning more quickly than me and reaching higher standards in the many assessments of our learning and this reinforced my belief that I was not very intelligent. The philosophy of my primary school in particular did not encourage me to develop the belief that I could learn as there was little attention paid to individual children's styles of learning, personal interests or potential sources of motivation. With hindsight I realise that the capacity to learn and grow was always within me but my early experiences in education reinforced the emerging belief that I managed better with practical tasks than the more academic ones.

My early beliefs about my ‘self’, and my intelligence in particular, led me to pick predominately practical subjects at secondary school as I thought of my ‘self’ as being ‘practical’ rather than ‘academic’. It was only when I developed an interest in English during my fifth year at secondary school that I began to consider the possibility that perhaps I could learn and might be able to tackle something more ‘academic’.

Without the change in my beliefs about my ability to learn and the growing realisation that practice helped performance it would not have been possible to train as a teacher. However, it took a further twenty years for me to decide to study for a degree and gain registration as a psychologist. As my interest in self theories has increased so has my ability to apply my developing understanding to areas of my thinking which have confined my options. Gaining a PhD in my late forties is a reflection of the possibilities that seemed viable as I explored my self theory and learned how to identify limiting beliefs, manage unsettling feelings and implement lasting changes.

During my postgraduate research I came to realise how self theories influence our lives, in terms of how we feel about our selves, what we consider possible, how we cope with setbacks and respond to situations that require us to learn and change. The Exploring Possibilities programme is the applied version of my research and it affords the opportunity to understand how self theories can restrict or liberate our choices, feelings and lives.