Neurologists and psychologists, or simply put those that have insights into the human psyche say that somewhere on our brains we have what they call mirror cells. These are cells that are match our behavior to that of the world around us so that we can fit in.  So this means that we as humans are hard wired to copy what we experience through our senses. We become part of what we are around because our mirror cells are programmed to have us copy what we experience. But here is the interesting thing, your mirror cells do not need your permission to mirror what is around.
It is primarily for this reason that it is difficult to be brave among a group of cowards and difficult to be a coward among a group of brave people. Not that you are incapable of being either, but just that at the present moment your mirror cells are heavily influenced by what is around you.
This means that whether you are aware of it or not if you are surrounded by mediocrity, mediocrity becomes a part of you. By talking about mediocrity and focusing on it like most people do that mediocrity becomes a part of you in someway. It rubs itself on you. This means that you should surround yourself with greatness every chance you get so that greatness becomes a part of you without you even noticing that greatness is becoming a part of you.
This means you have to continually be activating and stimulating your mirror cells. Which brings up the question “what are you feeding your mirrors cells? What have you surrounded yourself with or what are you surrounding yourself with? Do you like what your mirror cells are mirroring right now?
In an interesting study psychologists told two groups of teachers different stories about Sam, Sally and Peter. One group of teachers was told that they were academically gifted students, while another group was told that these students were the worst of the worst. However, the teachers were told not to reveal or hint in any way to the Sam, Sally and Peter that they knew about their academic achievements or the lack of it.
But surprisingly at the end of the term the students’ performance was off the charts in the subjects of the teachers who had been told that the students were academic geniuses. On the other hand they failed miserably the subjects of the teachers who had been told that the students were dumb.
Why would something like that happen? Could it be that the secret information that the teachers got about the students inspired teachers to behave differently in front of the students at different times when they were with the students? What is the key to this puzzle, should we focus on the behavior of the teacher or should we focus on the students’ behavior? What enabled them to succeed in other subjects while they failed others?
I think teachers who thought they were in the presence of greatness were inspired to teach at higher level, their mirror cells mirrored the excellence they perceived before their eyes. Students on the other hand also had their mirror cells pick up on the subtle cues to up their game because a lot was expected from them. So they picked up their standards which resulted in scores that were off the charts. The same process repeated itself in with a group of teachers who were told not to expect much from the students as they were extremely slow learners.
Most people who try and translate this into real life will think that WOW. Great!! So I can start surrounding myself with greatness every chance I get and greatness will be mine in no time. If it worked all that simple life would be much easier, but the thing that you have to contend with are the low opinions you have of others. If you have low opinions and low expectations of others not only will they subconsciously mirror that opinion about themselves but ultimately you will also begin to have low opinion of yourself because the mirror cell effect also works in reverse. First they mirror what’s in your eyes and then you mirror what in their eyes.
Therefore it is much simpler to strive to believe in people, to go for the magic in them so that they too can strive to believe in you as well as go for the magic in you. That way if you are nice to people and smile at people they generally smile back at you and consider you to be a nice person too.
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