Thurday's Time Tip: The Power of Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Here is another aspect of time management. You have to believe you can accomplish what you set out to do. If you don’t, you won’t. It is that simple.

You condition yourself to be able to accomplish something, or fail. You’ve already decided the outcome before you even begin.

Last week I witnessed an interchange with an irate customer and an experienced manager. I walked into the exchange and was shocked to watch as a grown woman flung her food and screamed about her burger not being prepared correctly. She threw an absolute temper tantrum, one that would make any two-year-old proud. It took some time to calm her down. She told the manager that she had trouble with her nerves and was struggling with coping with things.

I believed her statement. I wondered if she couldn’t handle a simple problem of not getting bacon on her burger how would she deal with bigger challenges? Her excuse was her nerves. She was giving herself permission to be rude and to have such a conniption fit.

This woman already decided that if things don’t go according to how she thinks they should it is okay to have a nervous breakdown. Now I’m not taking this lightly. She may, in fact, have a medical condition. My experience has taught me that your expectations are typically met.

So as you plan a week or a day (I promise to discuss both of these options in the near future!) take into account your own expectations. If you already believe you can’t do something, chances are you will not be able to. On the flip side if you believe you can accomplish what you set out to do, you more than likely will.

So when something doesn’t go right and you hear someone say, “I knew that wouldn’t work!” just remember they already believed that, thus the self-fulfilling prophecy. Believe in yourself; believe you can do it, and more than likely you will.