I majored in communications and minored in psych for my undergraduate degree. I taught interpersonal communication and sales at a college. I am well aware of the pluses and pitfalls to a self-fulfilling prophecy. How is it then that I find that I frequently find myself dealing with the pitfall of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Even if you are not familiar with the term self-fulfilling prophecy, you have probably experienced it. For example, have you ever had one of those mornings when as soon as you woke up things started going wrong – the alarm did not do off, you ran out of hot water in the shower, and hurt your foot stepping on a child’s toy left in the middle of the floor. By the time you sat down to your first cup of coffee, you decided that was going to be a bad day.
You notice things going wrong the rest of the day. Some of the things would have happened anyway, but you may notice them more because of your earlier prophecy. Some of the things may have been made worse or only occurred because of your earlier prophecy.
No, I am not saying you do things with the intention of making it a bad day. I am saying that you may do things unintentionally to fulfill your prophecy.
I did this last weekend. I noticed our car making a funny sound when I started it two weeks ago, just after dropping my husband at the airport (okay that may be another prophecy). I worried that it would not start every time I turned the key.
About a week later, I returned home on Thursday from visiting my sister. It was late. My daughter was asleep. I had a lot to unload from the car. I dropped my phone on the driver’s side floor. I hit the dashboard when I bent to pick it up.
On Saturday morning, I load my daughter in the car and head out for a busy day of soccer practice followed by volunteering at the Church’s groundbreaking festivities. I turned the key. The dashboard lights came on, but nothing else happened.
Okay, I am not totally incompetent about these things. I look around and notice all the lights are on. They seem bright. The battery is only a few months old. I try it again, and still nothing.
My daughter says it is okay – we can just have that man come out again and fix it. ( She was talking about the fact that we had to have AAA jump the car when the battery died several months before – hence the new battery). I told her no; the man would not be able to fix it this time.
I was grateful that the Grace of God had got us home without the car quitting on the road.
I resigned myself to the fact we were going nowhere that Saturday. I diagnose the problem to be either the starter, the alternator, or the timing belt – all expensive repairs just some worse than others. I called the garage we have work done. I set up to have the car towed in on Monday (I could not deal with it emotionally on Saturday). I tried to get a hold of my husband in Europe. I sent him a message about the car.
Later that afternoon, my husband calls on the computer. He asks me questions about how the car sounds. I get mad. I finally agree to go back out and try it again; this time on the cell phone, so he can hear the sound (or lack thereof).
I sit down in the car. I notice before I close the door that all the lights are now dim. I put in the key and turn it. Nothing. There are no dashboard lights this time. I call my husband with my cell. I tell him something must be draining the power, because there is nothing now and the lights are dim.
He asks me if I could have possibly hit the dashboard and turned on lights by accident. I glance at the dashboard. The inside light wheel is turned to on. I turn it off and admit my mistake.
An hour later, AAA was at my house jumping my car. It started right away.
I made my day worse by a self-fulfilling prophecy that did not even allow me to consider other possibilities.
So, what is the morale? Will I now always be aware and not allow a self-fulfilling prophecy to be detrimental? No, unfortunately, I know it will happen again. How do I know? I am human.
