#50DaysOfShades - Day 7 of 50 – Managing expectations.
Today (2nd June, Jubilee bank holiday) I went into town at lunchtime. I psyched myself up for it to be bustling to unbearably busy. Expecting for everything to take ages with some kind of bank holiday frenzy going on.
But there wasn’t, there were very few people in town, I was quickly in and out of the shops I needed to visit and even had to change the location I had considered for the photo to even get some people in the background.
It did however get me thinking on a tangent about expectations. Where we put those expectations on ourselves and others.
Several years ago I heard the phrase ‘lower your expectations to be happier’ or something along those lines. There are various articles about the concept i.e. Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/lowering-expectations-is-the-key-to-happiness-2014-8?r=US&IR=T / The Telegraph .
But the general premise is, if you have low expectations they generally get exceeded thus the outcome makes you happier.
However this has never sat very well with me especially when dealing with people. If you have to lower your expectations so low that there is a chance they will exceed them it does not feel to me like there is any point in that interaction. And that ‘no point in this’ made me sad.
That is where boundaries supersede expectations.
In my opinion we can be far happier setting and holding good agreed boundaries, than letting things slide and hoping people magically deliver.
Obviously this starts with oneself.
Learning to communicate what we are (and are not) going to do.
Ensure people are aware of what they CAN expect from us and make sure we deliver that.
Don’t leave them in a situation where they feel they need to lower their expectations of you/your ability/your work for them to be ‘happy’ with what you provide.
Communication and agreement (as always both personally and professionally) are the key.
#businesscoach #businesscoaching #expectations #boundaries #communicate #communication
What are you doing?
One of the big questions about this project is explained in more depth on Day 4