The Power of Belief and Expectation

By John Boe

While you may not always get what you want, you will always get what you expect! Belief is the most powerful state of mind because your belief system defines and shapes who you are and determines your potential. I believe Henry Ford was correct when he said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.” Your belief system doesn’t differentiate or judge, it simply accepts as truth what you feed it. Interestingly enough, the power of belief and expectation works just as effectively on your feelings of self-doubt and limitation as it does on your thoughts of success and achievement. Think thoughts of defeat or failure and you are bound to be discouraged. In his classic book, The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale revealed that the strangest secret in life is that you become what you think about. If you want to know what you believe, look at what you are experiencing in your life. As within, so without. Your thoughts are creative and express themselves through your emotions, which in turn, drive your actions. Everything you say is literally an affirmation, both positive and negative. You must be careful to guard your thoughts and words for they become your deeds.

I once heard a story about an eager, new insurance agent who had just received his license and was looking for prospects. He met with a successful businessman who had agreed to provide him with referrals. As he handed the salesman ten prospect cards, the businessman instructed him to call the prospects immediately and report back after he had finished. One week later, the enthusiastic salesman decided to drop by the businessman's office to give him feedback and to ask for more referrals. The insurance agent was pleased to inform him that he had been very successful! He said he had already contacted and sold insurance policies to eight of the referrals and was still trying to contact the other two. He enthusiastically thanked the businessman for providing him with the ten prospects and then asked him if he had thought of any other people to refer? The businessman smiled and said that he was very busy at the moment and shocked the insurance agent by handing him a phone book. The businessman explained that he had selected the previous ten prospect names at random out of the phone book and that the insurance agent could go ahead and get the next ten for himself.

The clever businessman taught the new insurance agent an extremely valuable lesson in the power of belief and expectation. The salesman had made those sales on the belief that he had been given ten preferred prospects. Therefore, he was confident and eager to contact those leads and expected to make the sales with little or no difficulty. What is your belief about your market and what expectations do you have for your success? Yes, belief is indeed a very powerful state of mind!