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Expectations

“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.” — Patricia Neal

Expecting others to do as well as they sometimes do is both unreasonable and counterproductive. It’s like a twelve-year-old hitting a homerun and then being told, “I knew you could do it. Now let’s have another one. You are a homerun hitter.” The problem is, of course, that there won’t be a homerun every time and now a single is sub-standard performance. The unspoken or perhaps spoken message is, “You aren’t giving it your best effort. You should have gotten a homerun.” This applies to a sales person making an unusually big sale, a scientist making a new discovery, a team winning the big game, and so on but also applies to less consequential events and activities. It’s appropriate to expect excellent performance but you know that expecting exceptional or perfect performance every time is a sure way to demoralize and frustrate any person.

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