Applying 'The Pygmalion Effect' to myself.

One of the symptoms of the disease I have (Anklosing Spondylitis) is fatigue and I don't just mean feeling tired after a day’s work. I am more often than not, not able to do any work or be active for a whole day. In fact when one of the medications I am on gets close to being administered, my A.S. gets worse as well as some of its ancillary symptoms like fatigue and chaotic sleeping patterns. After I get the medication in my body it takes a good 10 days for it to take me up to a below average state of health as it is neither a cure nor gets rid of all the pain, stiffness and discomfort that I have at all times. It is however a great help and means that I can achieve more than I used to. In fact 2010 was a very bad year for me and I would spend days at a time holed up in my flat so fatigued that I essentially did nothing productive and struggled at times to feed and care for myself. Last year however saw a turnaround when my Methotrexate was increased which allowed my Ant-TNF to become more efficacious. The 5 -6 weeks that I am at my optimum health I can lift heavier weights, stay awake longer, think more clearly and be more active. It is for this reason that I have been able to continue doing voluntary work; that in 2010 I thought I may have to give up as I was finding it a struggle. In fact I took on another client and now deliver library books to three people which consists of two households as two of the people are a couple. In 2011 I also started a college course on ‘Creative Writing’ mainly to improve my English, start Blogging and to see if I could start writing short stories and poems. At times I find it very difficult to keep these activities up. Now getting to the title of this Blog; “Applying 'The Pygmalion Effect' to myself.” It is my expectation of myself and praising myself for doing as well as I have and the periodical rewarding of myself that has helped me make this effort a reality for me. I shall go into further detail of the finer points of this in further Blogs some with examples from my life, some with information and psychological insight and others a combination of the two.

Welcome to Positively Portsmouth: Passport to Success

The Pygmalion Effect in action. I believe that what the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Cllr Cheryl Buggy has done is to tap into these childrens' potential by using the expectations of them to get the best out of them. In the City of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom this fantastic project; "Passport to Success" is bringing out the best of the city's young people.

Excerpt taken from article below:

"At the end of the first year, all of the participants will attend a celebration and prize-giving event in the Guildhall, where they will receive a certificate of completion from the Lord Mayor."

For more infomation please follow this link:  http://w1.hcprojects.co.uk/

Presupposition, Clarification and Intention

I am now going to state a presupposition, a clarification and an overriding intention of the project before I go further with my blogging proper. That is writing about my life and how “The Pygmalion Effect” is helping improve it and enabling me to become the best that I can be and live my life to its optimum expression.

Presupposition

The presupposition in this title is that ‘The Pygmalion Effect’ does indeed exist. Although this can be argued and no doubt will be in the course of this project I feel that it is in my interest and maybe yours also to come back to the positive conclusion that it does exist in a beneficial way. It can also be argued that there is a negative aspect to this phenomenon; the nocebo. I will spend a short time on this and will not dwell on it.

Clarification

To be clear the Pygmalion I am talking about in ‘The Pygmalion Effect” is named after Pygmalion a Cypriot sculptor in a narrative by Ovid in Greek mythology, who fell in love with a female statue he had carved out of ivory. Some modern cultural examples being My Fair Lady film and stage, Educating Rita film and stage and although it has been commented that Trading Places is a modern take on Mark Twain's classic 19th century novel The Prince and the Pauper, which itself was also a satire I would contend that it has elements of the Pygmalion Effect in the part of Eddie Murphy’s character Billy Ray Valentine. As also I feel there is an element of the Pygmalion Effect in Michael J. Fox’s character Brantley Foster in the 1987 film The Secret of My Success.

The Intention

I have all ready set out the goals and objectives of this project. The intention that I now write of is the over arching intention of this project and anything I do that is connected to it. This intention is inspired by the author of Esther & Jerry Hicks fame: Jerry Hicks. In fact it is a paraphrase of his exact words in the preface of “The Astonishing Power of Emotions”.

‘It is my intention that the lives of anybody that gets involved with this project or me through this project will be elevated as a result of their involvement and our interaction, or they be left where they are, but that no one will be diminished as a result of their association with me.” 

Terms of reference

                                                           Feast of the Guardian Angels 2nd October 2011

The objective of this Blog is to have enough posts, debate, argument and polemic along with several followers discussing and doing justice to the title:  “Who does ‘The Pygmalion Effect’ belong to?”  A secondary optional objective would be for this Blog to be the beginnings of a book proposal and being source material for the book. The title of the book is still to be decided.

The Stakeholders will be me and a few other people who will be named as the project goes along. Roles and responsibilities will be assigned as and when new stakeholders join the project.

There are no financial resources and I am currently the sole stakeholder and quality controller.

The 'Work breakdown structure' (WBS) and schedule are to follow. The current due date is 1st October 2012

"The Wounded Healer"