Reality tends to follow your expectations. That might seem like a strange thing to say with how often we feel like it is others people’s actions that drive the world around us. But let me share a few examples to help illustrate the point.
Illustration 1: You are a team lead and on of the members on the team you believe can’t possibly succeeded, maybe it is because they did not have the right education, personality, or length of time in the position. When this team member fails, you nod and act about how expected that outcome was, it was only natural and over time of this happening that team also comes to expect that. If instead you believe that they could succeed, when they fail you might ask them why and see what could help them instead of just telling everyone that is what you expected.
Illustration 2: The organization has picked to go a technology path that you don’t agree with, and you expect that to fail because of some problems that you have seen before or suspect due to reading other sources. At this point you could put your efforts into trying to find ways to adapt the solution to solve for problems before they arise and prepare others to handle them, but more often than not are likely to take the path of do nothing as the out come is already set.
Illustration 3: You expect that the world is bad and others are out to hurt you. In this case when ever something of pure chance occurs, you will be more likely to take it as a personal attack. When someone offers support or help you are likely to question their motivations. This view creates the bad world around you more than reality.
Now all these illustrations are one’s I have ran into in the world; many very frequently. I commonly advise to start by changing you expectations, but the goal is not to be blind to reality by doing so.