Changing expectations for success

I had to travel today to try and correct an error. It took all day, which meant that all my day job things were waiting for me when I got home. It was a very long day.

I didn’t end up getting that error corrected. I did end up with more work to do out of that experience that I’m not looking forward to, but will do because it needs doing. In the past, I would probably have experienced this day as beyond frustrating, because my expectations would most certainly have been geared entirely towards focusing on what I wanted to happen rather than on what I could make happen.

What I could make happen was one very small part of today: I re-arranged my schedule, I showed up on time, I did everything I could while I was there, I will go the next step tomorrow. Those are the only items I had any control over from my experience today. The rest was someone else’s part.

What I suffered from in the past were expectations that did not align with reality, and that meant I was almost always disappointed.

What I’ve discovered since is that I can free myself from feeling frustrated and disappointed by re-focusing on what I can genuinely accomplish as my part, and allow everything else be taken care of by those whose business it really is.

In the ted talk below, the speaker was able to change her expectations in a way that brought her the success she desired.

Quote of the Week

“Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack."- Brandon Sanderson 

Why lowering expectations can be a road to success 

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