Leveraging the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Sociologist Robert K Merton coined the term self-fulfilling prophecy to the act of making a prediction that in being made actually causes itself to become true. Merton very profoundly stated that if men define situations as real, they are real in consequences.

The magnanimous impact of this philosophy like kudzu pervades all arenas of human interaction – from motivation at workplace to training in sports. Having understood the power of this thought, ignoring to leverage it for the self would undoubtedly be an act of the unwise.

Rearranging the pieces of the puzzle, I would imagine this maxim acting at three levels, that of words, thought and visualization.

The vocabulary we use for ourselves and for others has a huge power to actuate the essence of our words. I personally have faced the outcome of a similar subconscious act at work. Having been touted as a worker with a propensity toward ‘theory’, expected to provide solutions out of academics, and being constantly reminded that an ‘executionist’ is more practical and less inclined to theory, converted a very hands-on me to a confined-at-my-desk me, without realizing that my sense of urgency for taking tasks to completion is being sponged out by omnipresent comments on my great academic skills and mediocre practical abilities. Whether it is at work or anywhere else in life, what we speak to ourselves and to others is what we become – the public announcement of our personal goals at the end of any training program is a feat in same direction, where what we speak to a group brings a mental commitment to the task, bestowing a responsibility in us to take it to completion. Thus, without the fear of being self-serving, all those beautiful adjectives from our vocabulary must be attached to dear ourselves so that we start reflecting them.

Coming to thought. One of the moral principles in Christianity is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. As Neil Walsch puts it, if we love our neighbor as ourselves, he would get a sour deal because most of us are complete failures at falling in love with ourselves. Unfortunate but true, we are the worst critics of ourselves – so we perceive ourselves to be more selfish than we can be, fatter than we are and more afraid than we would like to be. We expect the worst and often label optimism as naivety. As my very wise sister puts it – whatever we think about gets attracted to us – she calls it the ‘law of attraction’- where the world is like our Genie, readily accepting our wish as her command. Thus, as my yoga teacher puts it – we need to seal in everything good and let go of everything bad.

The juggernaut phenomenon of visualization cannot be underscored enough. It is like writing a screenplay of our own life, with the VIP privilege to decide the twists and turns it would take. Since this post is inspired from a beautiful email that my sister had sent to me, I would take the liberty of quoting a paragraph from it on visualization – “I tried to put this theory to another test…. During the Christmas mass, there was lucky draw….. I thought let me see if I can ‘Attract the prize”. I took my coupon in my hand, closed my eyes, visualized my coupon number being called out, me getting up from my seat and collecting the prize. I know this sounds strange but I won the prize. By the time, prizes were called, I had already gone back home, my coupon was with mummy. She collected it on my behalf”. You can do a similar test – think of an event that you hope would happen and honestly imagine it being realized. The life-breathing capability of visualization would not disappoint you.

What we speak, think and visualize is what the cosmos conspires to concretize. This brings with it an opportunity to fulfill all our goals of learning, improvement and progress. I have been bowled over by a line from ‘Conversation with God’ that serves as a compass for me to chart my unique course. It says “The purpose of life is to recreate ourselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision we ever held about who we are”. Let your vision of who you are be the epitome of grandeur.