Plan Every Day with Positive Expectancy
Every day can be one of great accomplishment. You can access your untapped potential, receive merited recognition, and achieve worthy goals in all areas of life. It is up to you to make every day exciting and rewarding. You can experience accomplishment, goal realization, and achievement when you approach each day with positive expectancy.
Positive expectancy is an attitude you must adopt and maintain daily. The greatness of your accomplishments depends upon your understanding and application of the principles of positive expectancy.
To illustrate the power of positive and negative expectancy, Norman Vincent Peale told a story about a group of people who, at the end of the year, committed to writing their expectations for the new year. Each person in the group wrote down his/her expectations and closed them in a sealed envelope to be opened the following year.
When the time came to read aloud the contents of the envelope, all were surprised to find that the expectations of each person had been fulfilled. One person had written: “All I can expect is more of the old, miserable same,” which unfortunately, was realized. Another person listed ten worthy goals he expected to achieve and found that nine had been accomplished.
You receive exactly what you expect, whether your expectations are positive or negative. You can see from these examples, and probably personal experiences, that an attitude of positive expectancy is crucial to accomplishment and success.
How Can You Plan Each Day with Positive Expectancy?
First, you must vividly imagine. You must develop the faculty of seeing, with your mind’s eye, a concise and clear image of your expectations. The law of attraction is demonstrated by the tendency to draw to ourselves that which we set out for ourselves. It is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve beyond our self-imposed expectations. You must understand and exploit the natural tendency of becoming precisely what you imagine yourself to be. Your mental picture of expectancy is most likely to become a reality.
Second, you must ardently desire. The more vivid your expectancy, the stronger your desire becomes toward the achievement of your goals. An ardent desire burning within creates a success consciousness that develops habits of success. Those habits drive dividends commensurate with your investment; they consistently challenge you to climb to greater heights. You enthusiastically accept the challenge of accomplishing your dreams.
Third, you must sincerely believe. The accomplishment of your goals, however vividly imagined and ardently desired, also depends upon a sincere belief in your ability and worthiness to attain them. Speaking of the power of such belief, Benjamin Disraeli said, “Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creature of man.” William James affirmed the same truth when he said, “Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the only thing that insures the successful outcome of our venture.”
Fourth, you must enthusiastically act. Enthusiasm and action are effective partners in bringing imagination, desire, and belief into reality. You must plan the short-term actions required to accomplish your goals. You must consider all the obstacles you expect to face and accept them as opportunities for creativity. Actions empowered by enthusiasm breed a positive state of acceptance of yourself and others. In such an atmosphere of acceptance and selflessness you find that the more you give, the more you are capable of giving, and the more you give the more you receive in return. The unfailing cycle of giving and receiving reinforces your commitment to positive expectancy.
When you live with positive expectancy, it does not mean that life will be free from disappointment, frustration, and difficulties. You acknowledge the negatives inherent in life as mere obstacles to your goals. Obstacles challenge and strengthen your ability, resolve, and understanding.
Positive expectancy allows you to transform problems into procedures and adversity into opportunity. With the pervading thoughts and concise mental picture of positive expectancy, you seek personal growth and welcome change.
If you want to live each day with positive expectancy, you must vividly imagine great accomplishments. You must ardently desire that this year will be the best year of your life. You must sincerely believe in your abilities and in the goodness of others. You must enthusiastically act upon your own plans and seize every opportunity to achieve.
Challenge yourself today to plan and live the new year with thoughts and dreams filled with positive expectancy.
LMI JOURNAL, VOLUME IV, NUMBER 5 Leadership Management® Institute
Reprinted with permission === Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management® International, Inc.
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