Self-Esteem: What About the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Many of my clients are staying connected to staff, customers, or members, by hiring me to deliver virtual presentations.

I provide high-impact and high-content virtual presentations through Engagez, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Google Meet, Hopin, Loom, Meetview, Microsoft Teams, StreamYard, Webex, and Zoom.

Have you noticed?  If you think a certain way, it causes you to you act a certain way, and then people react to you, just the way you thought they would.  Do you ever wonder?  If your self-esteem was more positive, your self-concept more confident, would your outcomes be different?  Could you control your destiny?

I do belief if we have a command of our self-concept, and a positive self-esteem, we can produce a different result.

What I am referring to is called the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person’s expectations of an outcome, and subsequent behavior, make the outcome more likely to occur.

There are two types of self-fulling prophecies.  The first occurs when your own expectations influence your behavior.  The other type of self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when other’s expectations govern your actions.

I’m sure you remember playing sports and psyching yourself up to perform at a higher level, or you have looked forward to a social event and had a blast.  The opposite is true, too, worrying about your performance before an athletic event, and it didn’t go so well, or reluctantly attending a social event you didn’t expect to enjoy, and you had an awful time.

The expectations of others can have the same effect.  We have all heard of the research studies in education and medicine.  Teachers were told in advance they were getting students that showed unusual potential for intellectual growth, even though the students were randomly selected, the teacher’s behavior led to changes in the children’s performance.  In medicine, patients who unknowingly receive placebos may respond favorably, as if they had received an effective drug.

I remember in a computer science class the concept of junk in junk out.  How about a new phrase, positive in positive out?

What you think has a tremendous impact on your approach.  Approach life with a positive outlook and enjoy the positive outcomes.

If your team is thinking things aren’t going well, apply the self-fulfilling prophecy and change the framework, to help your team work.  Contact me at kit@welchlin.com and I will provide a presentation that will promote successful results.

If you need to find a keynote speaker, plenary speaker, breakout speaker, concurrent session speaker, seminar leader, or workshop facilitator who can deliver in-person, virtually, or via prerecorded session, Kit Welchlin, M.A., CSP, CVP, is a nationally recognized professional motivational speaker and author and can be found at www.welchlin.com or www.SeminarsOnStress.com.