According
to Kurt W. Mortensen, author of Maximum
Influence, “The Law of Expectations uses expectations to influence reality
and create results” (Mortensen 149). I feel that the Law of Expectations
explains that people behave how we expect them to behave, and the more the
persuader understands that, the more persuasive he/she will be. Before I knew
what the Law of Expectations was I thought I never used it before, but I soon
realized that I use it more than I originally thought. Although this law can be
simple it is very effective in producing positive results for the persuader.
Just the other day my sister was studying for her test and she was a little
stressed out about it. To calm her down I told her that she will do great
because she always does great; she truly is highly intelligent. I like to think
that I was effective in persuading my sister because I understand now that I
set an expectation for her. By telling her that she is great I think it
motivated her to do well on her test because she wanted to live up to the
expectation I set for her. I can be very effective when I use this law on my
friends, family, and even strangers because you don’t really have to know a
person to persuade them through this law. However, this law can easily backfire
if you set expectations that are too high or low for someone to live up to. I
would like to continue to use this law with a persuasive intention in mind and
improve my ability to apply it effectively as the semester progresses.
From
my early childhood to my teenage years I was always on some sort of baseball
team. I loved playing baseball and had the constant desire to improve my game
when I could. I used to take all of my games seriously while doing my best to
perform on the diamond, but when my parents came to watch me it was a different
story. Whenever my parents came to my games I was extremely motivated to be the
best
player on the field. Thankfully my parents were at virtually every game I
have ever played, so I was always motivated to play at a high level. However,
my parents never told me that they expected me to be great because they wanted
me to do my best and have fun. There was used to be a feeling inside of me which
drove me to make my parents proud and show them that I was really good at
playing baseball. It is almost as though I set expectations for myself that I
had to live up to, driving me to be the player I wanted to be. Although it is a
little hard to explain, but it is by them not having incredible expectations
(like overbearing parents) for me made me set expectations for myself, in a
good way. I persuaded myself to do everything that was required show them that
their son was a good baseball player because it felt really good when I knew
that I played well and they knew it too. Although they thought I played great
even when I didn’t have a good game, their presence at my games persuaded me to
be the best I could be.
As
I stated in a previous blog, I work as a caddie at a golf course in the summer.
My caddie master (my boss) uses the Law of Expectations all the time on all of
his caddies in order to have us perform at a high level. Even though he knows
that I want to perform my best and represent the country club in a positive
manner he always give me a boost of confidence before I go out for a day’s
work. He will usually tell me that I will do great because he knows how great
of a caddie I am. I am always flattered by his kind words and they motivate me
to live up to the expectations he set for me. So when I go out onto the course,
with his words in mind, I go the extra mile in everything I do to show my boss
that I am as great as he says I am. My boss is a genius for using this law
because I never realized what he was doing until I learned about the Law of
Expectations in my persuasive communications course. He is very effective in
persuading me to do the best I can and be a great employee by setting those
expectations for me. I really respect my boss for knowing how to motivate his
employees through positive methods because he is a good person who wants
everyone to succeed beyond expectations.
One
week ago I saw one of the best movies I have ever seen throughout my life in
Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter
Soldier. I spent months waiting in great anticipation of this film because,
as you should know by now, I love super hero movies. During those months I
built up the expectations in my mind for how great the movie would be by
watching trailers, actor interviews, and sneak peeks for the movie. I was so
excited that I constantly told myself the movie will be amazing and it will
blow my mind. To put my expectations higher, critics were saying that the movie
was one of the greatest super hero movies they had ever seen. I had such high
hopes and expectations for this movie that I can’t even put it into words. When
I went to see the movie, somehow, it blew my expectations because it was even
better than I could have expected. There is a possibility that I thought the
movie was so good because I had very high expectations for it and I wanted it
to be good so badly. But now, after I’ve viewed that epic film, all I want to
do is continue to go to the theaters and watch it over and over again because I
want to experience that movie blowing the expectations I had for it as much as
I can; it was a good feeling. Through my expectations I persuaded myself that
the movie was going to be amazing, and thankfully it was so much more.
In
the past few days I have been given the opportunity to explore the Law of
Verbal Packaging and how it can be used effectively in a nonverbal situation.
As stated by Kurt W. Mortensen, “The Law of Verbal Packaging states that the
more skill you are in the use of language and vocal techniques, the more
persuasive you will be” (Mortensen 106). My professor recently assigned the
class a project in which we have to write our mission in life on a piece of
paper, take a creative picture of it, and tweet it. The purpose of this project
is to see how persuasive we can be in persuading people to possibly attend
Cardinal Stritch University through our mission statements. The way I write my mission
statement, and tweet it, will be the determining factor in whether or not
people are drawn to Stritch. I have not completed my project yet, but I am very
interested to see how effective I can be in persuading people nonverbally through
my mission statement. It will be a challenge because we humans are all so
different and persuaded by different things. I plan to take as much from this
project as possible and continue to learn how the Law of Verbal Packaging can
be effective when applied to written pieces.
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