Negative thoughts are picked up from a variety of sources. Perhaps you have an inferiority complex because you did poorly in school. Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal wondered if some children performed poorly in school because their teachers expected them to. If that’s so, Rosenthal surmised, then raising the teacher’s expectations should raise the children’s performance.

He put together a plan to try his theory in real classrooms. Students in kindergarten through fifth-grade were given a new test of learning ability. The following September, after the tests were graded, the teachers were given the names of five or six children who were identified as “gifted,” those who possessed exceptional learning ability.

What the teachers didn’t know was that the names had been chosen on a random basis even before the tests were given. The difference between those chosen and the rest of the students existed only in the minds of the teachers.

The same test was given at the end of the school year. It showed that the gifted children had actually soared far ahead of the other children. They gained as many as fifteen to twenty-seven IQ points. The teachers described these children as being happier, more curious, and affectionate, and as having a better chance to be successful in later life.

Obviously the only change had been one of attitudes. Because the teachers expected more of those children, they came to expect more of themselves.  Even though we might be unaware of the unconscious signals we send, tone of voice, facial expression, touch, and posture all communicate expectations.

Goethe said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and help them to become what they are capable of being.” This is also true of what you say and think about yourself.

Tags:   expectations · Rich Mind Life Strategy · Self Esteem · success3 Comments