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The
Universal Law of
EXPECTATION
“What we expect is what we get.”
Expectation: a considerable degree of confidence that a particular event will happen.
The Law of Expectation states that to the degree that we expect the best to happen, our life is prospered with success.
Conversely, to the degree that we expect the worst to happen, we are condemned to chaos, struggle and scarcity.
The right use of this particular Law really points to the importance of being an optimist rather than a pessimist.
Optimism
Optimism is the life-enhancing tendency of expecting the best outcomes of success. It’s the practice of looking on the bright side. Optimism is not for the naïve as much as it is for the enlightened. Optimism does not say that the expectation of successful outcomes frees us of struggles and setbacks. Nor does a true optimist judge failure or disappointment as good or bad, but rather part of the ebb and flow of life. True optimists take setbacks in stride, always expecting that sooner or later things work out for the best, and that later will come sooner than you think.
Practicing The Law Optimistically
Many people believe we’re in the midst of an economic recession. A true optimist does not to deny or pretend that there is no recession. Instead they acknowledge and accept the reality of it and are clear about what actions they need to take in order to successfully get past it. Most importantly, a true optimist always expects that like everything in life, this too shall pass and that the best is yet to come.
Pessimism
Pessimism is the self-defeating tendency of expecting the worst to happen about one's own chances to succeed. It’s the habit of always looking on the dark side. Pessimism is a sure guarantee to a life of struggle and misfortune because it invokes an ongoing misuse of The Law of Expectation.
Murphy’s Law
Capt. Edward A. Murphy was an engineer working on Air Force Project in 1949. One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." Somewhere along the way his statement was morphed into a self-defeating use of The Law known as Murphy’s Law, which says Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Whether Murphy was a pessimist or not is not my judgment to make; however, his story is an example of how absurd uses of The Law become part of conventional wisdom.
Practicing The Law Pessimistically
Pessimism is mired in the conviction that the economy is bad and getting worse by the minute. Pessimists waste precious hours drowning in the self-fulfilling prophecy of economic doom by locking themselves into a never-ending death-spiral of failure and despair.
Waking up and flying right
Waking up to The Law of Expectation and its optimistic use is the key to flying out of the spiral of pessimistic failure and into the jet stream of success.
REFLECTION
- What kinds of outcomes do you expect: the worst or the best?
- How ready are you to begin shifting your expectations from worst to best?
- What actions will you take to initiate the change?
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