Well, what did you expect?

Our expectations have a huge impact on what we experience. Like they say, we tend to get what we expect.

When faced with a tricky challenge, which requires a creative solution, our solution, or lack of a solution, rests heavily on what we expect. We are only as creative in any situation, as we expect we will be.

That’s because, as author David Robson says in ‘The Expectation Effect‘, our brains are like prediction machines.

I was sparked to write this earlier, when enjoying a coffee in Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The café is very popular and customers tend to reserve a table in advance. A man and woman walked in. The man quickly looked around the room. Within a few seconds, he turned to the woman and with his face like thunder and said, ‘crap, the tables are either taken or reserved!’. They stormed out.

Had he looked at any of the reserved tables, he’d see they have the time of the reservation clearly written on them. On many of the signs, there were 3, 4 or more hours before the table would be required.

At a glance, he expected the reserved signs to mean the tables were unavailable. So, that’s what he saw. And acted accordingly.

Over the years, I’ve learned that in almost every situation, a positive expectancy really helps. Certainly, with my creative work, I always expect to be able to achieve whatever I’m tasked with.

It’s not about being arrogant.

It’s about using positive expectancy as a creativity tool.

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash