Day 605 - Land where I land - https://golifelog.com/posts/land-where-i-land-1661642353037
Are expectations ever useful?
Because if you expect something and didn’t get it or got less, you get disappointed.
If you expect something and got it exactly how you expected it, you feel neutral.
Only when you got way more than expected, you’re pleasantly surprised and delighted.
So imagine if you had lower expectations, or little to no expectations at all… wouldn’t your surprise and delight be through the roof?
Some might object to this, saying that without expectations, we wouldn’t work as hard, put in effort, or play the part. And we’ll more likely end up with nothing. Expectations makes us rise to the occasion, they say.
I disagree. It’s mutually exclusive. It can be. If I enjoy the process; if I like putting in my best effort anyway, then I’ll be motivated to work just as hard. Just without the weight of expectations.
Jason Fried (https://world.hey.com/jason/tossing-a-key-87b91f17) recently wrote this, which inspired this reflection:
"We land where we land. Trying too hard narrows the desirable outcomes.
Expectations are the enemy here — they limit the number of great landing spots, and make the idealized one impossibly hard. Relax your expectations, and hundreds of positive possibilities open up.
When you don’t go in with expectations, you almost always come out ahead. It’s better to have a wide gaze, point in a general direction, do your best, and just see what happens."
The distinction is subtle, but it’s there nonetheless. Don’t try to run a business, just run a business.
Indeed. Instead of expecting results in exactly the way I want it, perhaps it’s time to retire that unrealistic need and just land where I land.
If I’m not always looking ahead for what I expect, perhaps then I can be more aware of where I am right now, the opportunities available, the landscape around me, in order to leverage everything better.
And ironically that might end up helping me get to the success I want faster.
Because if you expect something and didn’t get it or got less, you get disappointed.
If you expect something and got it exactly how you expected it, you feel neutral.
Only when you got way more than expected, you’re pleasantly surprised and delighted.
So imagine if you had lower expectations, or little to no expectations at all… wouldn’t your surprise and delight be through the roof?
Some might object to this, saying that without expectations, we wouldn’t work as hard, put in effort, or play the part. And we’ll more likely end up with nothing. Expectations makes us rise to the occasion, they say.
I disagree. It’s mutually exclusive. It can be. If I enjoy the process; if I like putting in my best effort anyway, then I’ll be motivated to work just as hard. Just without the weight of expectations.
Jason Fried (https://world.hey.com/jason/tossing-a-key-87b91f17) recently wrote this, which inspired this reflection:
"We land where we land. Trying too hard narrows the desirable outcomes.
Expectations are the enemy here — they limit the number of great landing spots, and make the idealized one impossibly hard. Relax your expectations, and hundreds of positive possibilities open up.
When you don’t go in with expectations, you almost always come out ahead. It’s better to have a wide gaze, point in a general direction, do your best, and just see what happens."
The distinction is subtle, but it’s there nonetheless. Don’t try to run a business, just run a business.
Indeed. Instead of expecting results in exactly the way I want it, perhaps it’s time to retire that unrealistic need and just land where I land.
If I’m not always looking ahead for what I expect, perhaps then I can be more aware of where I am right now, the opportunities available, the landscape around me, in order to leverage everything better.
And ironically that might end up helping me get to the success I want faster.