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How turning a self-fulfilling prophecy from a curse to a blessing can influence your life.

First, for the sake of clarity, a self-fulfilling prophecy describes a prediction on oneself that causes itself to become true.

Growing up, I have been raised (and personally believed) that what you believe in, what you want most in life, is yours—only if you put enough effort into it.

Hence, I was (and still am) a hard worker, one who does not quit until I achieve what I want, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen for myself and to enjoy the “victory” after the hustle.

But I honestly never paid attention that no matter what we want in life, our mindset and psyche can actually affect the outcome.

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To elaborate more, I never realized that my state of mind (while doing a certain action) can lead me to take it home or lose it brutally. For example, I have always wanted to write and share my thoughts, but I never believed I could do it or put enough mind into it, as I only fixated on the negative aspect.

The negative aspect was that I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t bold enough up until this year when I started thinking about writing and how it makes me feel happy and in peace, and someone actually approached me and told me about Elephant Journal and encouraged me to write. I actually went through with it.

It was only when I read this concept in the bible and in the book The Secret that it became clear to me that the more I focus my mind, soul, and body on a certain goal, the easier it might come to me—and the more I will make it happen.

Slowly, I started to see how much we can affect our lives—by simply our own mindset.

What’s tricky is that this cuts both ways and mostly toward negative outcomes, as we tend to imagine failure, deceit, and the worst-case scenarios. (Shoutout to all the overthinkers out there.) And the more we overthink about something negative, the more likely it is to happen. This is the bad side of a self-fulfilling prophecy; this is where it goes downhill and makes us crash.

This is where willpower has to intervene; this is where we can change the equation; this is where all the overthinking energy must be put into “overthinking” about what we want most in life, what makes us happy, what makes us thrive and spend all our stamina on it. This is where we can control outcomes in our lives. A self-fulfilling prophecy at its best—well-dressed and attractive.

The more we focus and think about something important to us, something we dream about, or a goal, the more life might turn our journey in the most unexpected ways that will guide us straight to our desired results—our happiness determinant factor.

And to say the least, I truly believe in this self-fulfilling prophecy power, as I have experienced it firsthand and foremost, and in both directions—that of success and the other of failure. I lost opportunities, important ones in life, only because I believed I wasn’t good enough, without any proof or justification. Also, I am who I am today for constantly believing in my strength, my capabilities, and my skills. Paradoxical, right?

The way I see it, we can approach life in two ways. The first is an easy one, as it is embedded in our nature and is effortlessly reached—believing we are a complete failure and actually being an utter failure as this is what we have “prophesized” on ourselves. The second takes a little bit more effort but is extremely rewarding and is definitely worth the time and space dedicated to it—focusing on what matters, when it matters, and thinking and doing whatever it takes to achieve and make the good things in life happen.

We might see good things falling into our laps because yes, thinking it first makes it happen better, faster, and stronger.

So which way will you choose?

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