Often our expectations of people or groups of people are based on the assumptions we have about them. The same is true of the expectations we have about ourselves. Have you ever noticed how your expectations become reality in your personal life? Expectation is literally a self-fulfilling prophecy. We do this consciously and subconsciously.
Remember the child in primary school who was always really rowdy and disruptive? Sometimes, if people already assume they are perceived a certain way, then that is exactly how they will act, even if they don't mean to. The rowdy kid in school knew everyone perceived him as disruptive, and so he was. The teacher expected bad behaviour, and the expectations were fulfilled.
Consider the profound impact this can have when it is applied in your own life. Are the assumptions and expectations you have about yourself liberating or victimising? There are countless examples of self-fulfilling prophecies, or the Law of Expectations, at work in everyday life. Have you ever noticed how people who think they're going to be fired suddenly experience a drop in the quality and enthusiasm for their work? Then what happens? They get fired! Their belief causes them to act a certain way, and those expectations then work to bring about the very thing that at first was only a fragment of their imagination.
In a fascinating study, third year primary school students listened to statements from their teachers before taking a maths test. There were three types of statements: expectation, persuasion, or reinforcement. The expectation statements went something like, "You know your maths really well!" or "You work really hard at maths!" Persuasion statements involved sentences like, "You should be good at maths," or "You should be getting better maths grades." Finally, for the reinforcement statements, teachers said things like, "I'm really happy about your progress" or "This is excellent work!" Now, what do you think the results were? The scores were highest in the expectation category! Why were the expectation statements the most effective? They created personal assumptions within each student. Those assumptions conditioned the actual external results.
So try to make a habit of expecting the best for yourself and those closest to you. You might be astonished by the results!