You are a self fulfilling prophecy

Greetings:

As we continue to celebrate National Self Esteem month lets examine one very important aspect of self esteem. The self fulfilling prophecy. What you believe about yourself, your future and your abilities is what will come true. Your beliefs about yourself predict how your life will be. You Are a Self-fulfilling Prophecy.

Henry Ford said, "Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right." Whatever you believe is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy has been studied and theorized about throughout the ages. The concept is that what is believed to be true is more important than what is true, and people will go to great lengths to prove that what they thought would happen did occur. The world becomes our mirror and reflects back to us what we expect to see.

The danger with a self-fulfilling prophecy is that a person can believe something into reality. In other words, something that isn't necessarily true can come true as a result of the belief. According to Robert K. Merton, the 20th century sociologist who coined the term, "This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error." The error comes in because the prophecy only happened because it was believed it would happen. For the most part, a self-fulfilling prophecy is typically thought of as something negative, but it doesn't have to be negative. You can use the same concept to create good things in your life that have positive outcomes. That way instead of a "reign of error" you will create a "reign of success."

I have always been curious whether predictions come true because they were true, or if people believed them to be true and thus acted accordingly. If, as the theory states, a self-fulfilling prophecy comes true because one believes it will, you can use this to your advantage. In other words, create a self-fulfilling prophecy that is positive, such as "I will succeed." Take what Ford said and believe that you can and you will create a positive, self-fulfilling prophecy.


A self-fulfilling prophecy can set you up for either failure or success. It all depends on what you think and believe will happen. The world will reflect back to you what you believe, so believe in the best possible end result and your chances of receiving it are greatly increased.

I would love to hear how you thought your way into a positive outcome. Leave your post on the blog.

Happy Self Esteem Month

Here's to taking action,

Rachelle