Proof That Perception Affects The Way We Act

Warning: It may not seem like it but this post has everything to do with you and your business - I promise! Just follow it through.

We do a bit of volunteer work for a local non-profit.

It’s run by a great group of people with a worthy cause: helping teens to avoid self-destructive behavior and reach their potential.

As part of an anonymous survey, high school students were asked two questions about the past 30 days:

• Have you used alcohol?

44% said ‘yes’.

• What percentage of your classmates do you think have used alcohol?

The answer here was an overwhelming 99%. In other words, every student assumed (falsely) that every other student was using alcohol.

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(Bear with me here - we’re almost to the point!)

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Some time passed - enough for the community to make important changes - and students were given the same survey again.

This time the numbers were much better: 33% said ‘yes’ to drinking and 60% assumed that their classmates were. (That’s a 40% decrease from before!)

Researchers looked at the results and attributed improvement to *one* factor. Do you know what it was?

Their perception of each other.

You see, students were more likely to drink when they assumed everyone *else* was doing it!

This Survey Illustrates An Important Truth For Us As Business Owners

Your perception of yourself has a huge impact on whether or not you succeed.

At a time of year when setting goals is especially common - whether it’s losing weight, doubling sales from last quarter, spending more time with family, increasing client retention - the key to seeing them through and succeeding is first believing you will achieve them.

You see, that’s the problem with most goals/resolutions – they may be well intentioned but the person never truly believes they will happen in the first place!

So, at the risk of sounding “hokey”… if you can’t visualize your goal happening, it won’t!

-Costas