I am Always Late

 As it is well-known, a lack of motivation can cause serious consequences. Those people who have no spark will never move ahead and achieve results, will not make every effort to become something or make own life happier. A lack of motivation causes us being lazy, disappointed, apathetic, pointless, and always late. Motivation is something that sets us to the way to success, and learning more about what can motivate and give us a good impulse is a great strategy for those who really want to achieve the goals in this life. Did you know that there is actually a great deal of hidden motivators which we even do not think about? The Pygmalion effects explains one of those.

The Pygmalion Effect, which is also called “the self-fulfilling prophecy”, is a phenomenon discovered by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson. After a number of practical researches and studies, these specialists put forward a new theory about the influence of personal expectations from people on their performance. In other words, if a person or a group of people are aware about high expectations from them, they will demonstrate much better performance and achieve better results. According to this theory, we all can considerably improve the outcomes and effectiveness of ours by understanding that some people believe in us and expect our success. This effect works perfectly well for any person, in any environment and any conditions.

The Pygmalion effect plays a role in management science, and there were a great deal of experimental studies proving its effectiveness. An IQ test was offered to the students, but randomly chosen children were reported to their teachers as winners. After being treated as bright and talented students, those “fake winners” considerably improved their results in the second test. At the same time, those children, who were real winners of the first test, but were not stimulated by the teachers, did not exhibit any improvements. The name of this interesting phenomenon takes origin from a character of Ovid’s story, Pygmalion, who was a Prince of Cyprus. He constructed a statue with beautiful appearance, fell in love with it and asked Gods to bring it to life. Famous play-writer Bernard Show borrowed this story for his play, Pygmalion, which became popular as the musical My Fairy Lady and helped Rosenthal and Jacobson to find a name for their new theory.

The Pygmalion effect is an important instrument and can turn into one more absolutely great motivator for all of us, both at the workplace and in our real life. It can assist us in understanding that our success depends not only on our qualification, personal qualities or working environment, but also on expectations and the value we have among the people of our circle. In order to support our friends and co-workers, we always have to believe in other people and expect them to achieve the best results stimulating them for a better performance. Similarly, if a boss or a manager believes in his employees and expect great results from them, the subordinates will always feel this trust and demonstrate their best skills and abilities in their work. Keep in mind this interesting theory if you want to help the people around you achieve success and attain their goals.