Have you ever heard of a Self Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP)?
SFP according to one definition I found is "Any positive or negative expectation about circumstances, events, or people that may affect a person's behavior toward them in a manner that causes those expectations to be fulfilled".
Does it work? I can think of instances where I had expectations for a situation, and it turned out entirely different than I had anticipated. Same with some people who performed differently than what I expected. So, if that is true, what is the benefit of discussing SFP ?
The relevance is that awareness and belief in SFP may give you an advantage and more "wins" in life. How? To me it is a cause and effect proposition - a force of sorts..... if your goal in life is to be more positive, to be a motivator, to encourage and teach others or to be opportunistic, the Self Fulfilling Prophecy concept is probably something you believe in and apply regularly....think "Visualization" and "Law of Attraction" .
Conversely, if you are a pessimist, are critical of situations or people, lack trust, shoot holes in the ideas or efforts of others, believe that everyone and everything in life is against you or that you always get dealt the low hand, the SFP concept is definitely at work - although you may not recognize it at the time, and may not want to even acknowledge that the concept applies to your situation or your life.
Remember that this is an expectation concept that applies to others, but it also applies to one's belief in self!
Life is a numbers game....a salesman will tell you that they may make 100 pitches to sell a service or a product and close only 5 -10% of what they attempt. But, a good salesman will tell you that in every single one of the 100 attempts they gave it their all- they qualified the prospect, they were prepared, personable, outlined the benefits, and knew when to attempt their close. They know up front that they won't close 100% of the people they prospect, but they BELIEVE they can, they visualize success and they also recognize that failure is a given on the road to success. They recognize a "No" puts them one step closer to a "Yes". This is a good example of the concept at work....without their belief in themselves, a salesman would not have the correct mindset to insure the outcome of successful closings, and realize the success that is the fruit of their efforts.
I believe there is great benefit in understanding and applying SLP ...positive expectations of ourselves, others and how we view situations we experience will increase the odds for a more successful, positive and happy life.
Please feel free to email me with your comments, stories, ideas or article or links to topics.
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