By: Ken Austin
Do you expect to be successful? Or do you spend much of your time worrying and obsessing about the possibility of failure?
One thing you’ll eventually learn on your journey to success is that your expectations hold great power! Whatever you expect to see and experience is usually what you’ll get. There are many ways this can affect your ability to reach your goals, but here are three main considerations you should be aware of:
1) Your expectations affect your attitude. It’s amazing how much attitude has to do with success. A negative or cynical attitude is enough to prevent you from giving your best effort and attention to your goals, which will lead to lukewarm results.
If you want to experience dynamic results, you’ve got to have a dynamic attitude. You’ve got to be fired up, passionate, and committed to your goals as if your life depended on achieving them. Your success certainly does!
2) Your expectations affect your willingness to take action. Not only will a negative expectation taint your attitude, it will also determine the intensity and frequency of your actions. If you expect things to go wrong, they usually will. If you expect to experience an unfavorable outcome, you’ll see little point in working on it as diligently as you could, which will return poor results also.
On the other hand, when you’re motivated and inspired about your goals and expect them to bring forth a lucrative outcome, your determination will skyrocket and you’ll move forward deliberately and swiftly. You’ll know you’re going to be successful, so why hesitate?
3) Finally, your expectations affect your interactions with others. People can sense a negative attitude even if you don’t say a word (though it does seep into your language too). If you go into any potential partnership or opportunity with a negative expectation, your potential partners aren’t going to be inspired by your attitude. They’ll probably view you as an ineffective, unconfident person that they may not want to be involved with.
But a confident, positive person with a clear focus and solid plan of action is someone that everyone would want to work with! Not only will you feel better by expecting the best in every situation, your potential partners and benefactors will be inspired by your vision and determination, and be more likely to work with you.
You know the old saying, “Expect the best and you’ll get it”? Take it seriously; for it holds a lot of wisdom.
