As much as I would like to dazzle you with some profound musings of my own, sometimes we are better served by keeping our mouths shut and our eyes and ears open. So in the spirit of sharing others’ words of wisdom, I thought that Lori Deschene’s post from her Tiny Buddha blog was worth revisiting in my Journal entry:
“When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find ways to do it.” -Dr. David Schwartz
In 1957, Dr. Robert Merton introduced an idea known as the Galatea Effect, which suggests we tend to do what we expect we’ll do.
If you think you can run a marathon, you’re more likely to push yourself through training and eventually cross the finish line. If you expect that you’ll make friends easily, you’ll likely be relaxed enough to make people around you feel at ease.
It also works the other way around. If you believe you don’t have the leadership skills to run a meeting, your insecurity will undermine your authority. If you expect you’ll clam up around the person you’re attracted to, you’ll find yourself sweating whenever you meet eyes.
What if we woke up and expected not only the best of ourselves and our efforts, but also the best in the unexpected? What if we expected that the things we can’t predict will somehow turn out for the best? What if we didn’t just believe in ourselves; we believed in our ability to adapt to the unknown?
We can never know exactly what’s coming, but we can know that no matter what happens, we can turn it into something good. We can know that no matter where our aspirations lead us, we can meet all our needs through our interpretations, attitudes and actions.
If you’re feeling stressed about the things you’re trying to accomplish, choose to expect the best in yourself–but more importantly, remember that you can find joy in tomorrow, no matter what it brings.
Lori tells us in the previous paragraphs to believe in what we can do. So what happens when you believe, work hard and still find yourself coming up short? What do you do when it’s just not meant to be? I don’t have the answer and certainly would not want to pretend I did. However, I don’t think the Rolling Stone’s were too far off… You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.
And it doesn’t hurt to trust in God’s Will.
Stand Strong!
Scott