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The Law Of Expectation: And How To Understand It, With Example

The Law of Expectation is connected to questions you ask yourself, like, “Why does this keep happening to me?” or “Why can’t I get ahead?”

And aren’t you asking these questions because life seems to keep pushing you down no matter what you do? It keeps blocking your success and stopping you from, ultimately, being happier?

It’s a common problem for many people, and I was also asking those questions early in life. It took a long time before I realized I could do something about it.

And suppose you have asked similar questions and have yet to do something about it. In that case, it’s not because you’re not motivated but because you’re unaware that you can do something about it.

In that case, you should check out our NLP Life Coaching.

But right now, let me help you understand how Dr. Milton Erickson’s Law of Expectation works

Law of Expectation

 Dr. Milton Erickson was a brilliant Hypnotherapist, undoubtedly the best in the world. Still, I wasn’t completely sold on his Law of Expectation when I first read about it, and here’s why …

There are so many weird ideas being sold out there that it becomes easier to disbelieve them all rather than to waste time trying to find the one that actually works.

Expected Easy Life Korzybski image

Or as Alfred Korzybski said in his book Science and Sanity, “There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.”


Not being one to take the easy road through life, I had to prove to myself that it either worked or it didn’t.

Most so-called laws are simply writers’ ideas to sell a concept. And, of course, under scrutiny, they don’t work. So I had to know if this was one of them.

What Dr. Erickson’s Law of Expectation Says:

Erickson’s Law of Expectation plainly states that 85% of what you expect to happen … Will.

He also declares that it doesn’t play favourites, so it doesn’t matter if you expect negative or positive things to happen. The Law of Expectation stays true.

And you can’t cheat the Law of Expectation. You can’t cheat by wishing or hoping for something to happen or be a certain way. Because a real expectation is tied into your Belief System.

And because it’s tied into your belief system, even highly motivated people can’t get ahead at times. Because somewhere ingrained in their thinking (usually due to an earlier experience) is the belief they can’t.

For me, it was my father’s voice saying, “Only crooked people get ahead.” I wasn’t crooked, so I obviously couldn’t get ahead.

Then I got my coach to help me change that belief to – people who do the right things get ahead. That’s an NLP Reframe, by the way.

Law of Expectation bug image

Expect To Be Bugged By This

So after playing with this over the years, I noticed some other things that tie into the Law of Expectation. Things within the normal hypnotic realm where Dr. Erickson was famous.

Here’s An Everyday Example …

One day I was in my garden shed, and it was a bit dark but light enough to see what I was doing. I was pouring some rabbit food pellets from a large bag into a smaller dish when suddenly I saw a pellet roll away from the dish. Well, I thought it was a pellet …


Or rather, I expected it to be a pellet. Only after defying the laws of physics by continuing to roll did I stop expecting it to be a food pellet. Then I could SEE that it was a very fast multi-legged bug which obviously had no expectation of me being there.

Glad I didn’t reach down to put it back in the dish. Ugggh!


The event proved to me again that Dr. Erickson was correct in his Law of Expectation, even if it was on a much smaller scale.

Wrong Expectation image

I expected to see a food pellet rolling away from the dish. And I SAW a food pellet rolling away from the dish. It was a food pellet until I had a sudden reframe, an undeniable truth that caused me to see something I wasn’t expecting.


Much of the field of NLP comes from Dr. Milton Erickson’s work, and I have, and still study, his work for answers as most still lie hidden, waiting to be discovered and used.


The study of NLP is about understanding people. Whether you want to know more about yourself, others or both. This is the only field that covers the subject in great detail and understanding. Or more interestingly presented.


And I don’t believe there is an end, as the more I learn, the more I learn that there’s always more to learn. But that’s what growing and expanding is all about.

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