First and foremost, let me just say that it’s good to finally get back to work after being home sick since last week Tuesday.

The flu bug definitely bit me hard and although it was a battle of epic proportions (the sickest I’ve been in a LONG time; I was so sick I missed Easter!) I’m proud to say that I claimed victory.

Now that I’m back I want to call attention to something that I think may be spreading across the country these days - - the Pygmalion Effect.

Scientists say that this phenomenon occurs when “a false definition of the situation evokes a new behavior, which makes the original false conception come true.”

In other words, once we set an expectation we tend to act in ways that would make it a self-fulfilling prophecy - - even when it’s not true!

Think about it for a moment. What about expecting a bad performance review, getting fired, being rejected by a friend, believing that all good jobs are taken, expecting bad “luck,” or “knowing” your business is going down the tubes? Could the false anticipation make that event become a reality?

Certainly there are absolute truths and unchanging good and evil. However, these are prime examples of how our perspective on a situation can profoundly impact our lives. Surely, we should be able to reverse the effect.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2


“What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Job 3:25-26 (NIV)