Several years ago I came across the story of a man who was the captain of a ferry boat. As you know, one-hundred years ago the ferry boat was often the only way to get from one side of a river to another. This ferry ran between two towns, separated by a wide river. Often the people from one town would get on the boat and ask the captain “What are the folks in the other town like? Are they friendly? Are they rude? What can I expect?”
The captain would look at them for a moment and answer them with a question, “What are the folks like in your town?” If they answered that the people in the town they lived in were friendly and cheerful, then the captain would tell them that the folks in the town they were going to were also friendly and cheerful. On the other hand, if the answer was that the people in the town they lived in were rude, self-centered and dishonest, the captain’s answer would be that they would find the folks in the new town to be rude, self-centered and dishonest.
This wise old captain had mastered the lesson that so many people fail to ever learn—that for the most part we tend to get from people what we expect. If we look for the bad in people, then that’s probably what we will find. But if we look for the good in them then in most cases we will find it. There seems to be an unwritten law of life that we tend to send signals to those around us that cause them to respond in certain ways to us.
The same can be said for life. What we sincerely expect to happen usually happens. According to those who have studied this phenomenon the deepest recesses of the mind set in motion thoughts and actions to make what we sincerely want (or believe will happen) to be fulfilled. If we don’t really expect much from ourselves or our efforts in certain areas then the mind doesn’t respond with the type of thinking that produces much of anything. But when we really expect big things to happen for us, then the mind comes alive with ideas and innovative approaches that move the expectations into the realm of the doable and possible.
When we approach the week with half-formulated goals, fuzzy plans and an “I just gotta make it to the week-end” attitude, we are really saying we don’t expect much, and we usually get it. However, if we approach the week with well-formulated goals, solid plans and an expectation that by the week-end things will have moved along toward reaching those goals, we often are surprised by the results.
So I ask you, what do you really expect this week? Are you sure it’s big enough?
Have a great and profitable week!
Robert Hidde
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