Reasons Why You Need to be “SMART” While Setting Expectations!

Yesterday night I continued reflecting on reasons why people give up. One of the things that came to my mind was lack of expectations.

For anything you do, if you don’t set expectations, it will be hard to get better results and sustain it for long term.

Don’t just give yourself easy tasks or assignments to complete. Setting yourself a thoroughful but reasonable and realistic challenge will give you additional belief that you can do it – seven if it does take time, energy – and that will eventually strengthen your own self confidence and reinforce your ability to attain goals. As you may note it, all boils down to setting expectations.

So what are expectations for you?

Per my definition, they are beliefs about something that is supposed to happen in the future as far as projects or work you embark on are concerned . In fact, if you engage in any business, any kind of endeavor, you expect something to happen at the end. You want to see a result, a trace, an imprint of your actions. It could be low or high. But the higher the better, because you will put in more effort, focus to meet them. They are like self fulfilling predictions. But how can you achieve them if you didn’t set them at the beginning? That is the question.

It is imperative to posit that expectations are everywhere. In the classroom students and teachers define it. At the workplace workers and bosses have it. In the webinars, online courses, masterminds, trainers and trainees have it. Writers and readers have them for the books, articles they write or read. In games, players and coaches set them before going to the field. In the house parents and kids have them. Travelers and transport owners always consider them . In relationships, friendships, they are there. They are in marriage, both partners look up to each other for them. If you have been to an interview before, you might have probably been asked to expound on your salary expectations. And many more. I just can’t think of a course of life with no expectations . If you thought of one, let me know in the comment box.

Now, what was the last project you embarked on? What were your expectations at the beginning of your adventure? Did you meet them?
If you didn’t define them at the start, now that you are reading this, what would have been your expectations from the beginning? Stop and Write them down. You will gain a lot if you set them and work hard to achieve them.

Just remember how many times you have been asked to write down your expectations for a training you partook,or the beginning of the year if you are a student.
Why do you think the trainer or teacher asked to do so? Why are they so important? Well, there are lots of benefits you can get from setting them.

How do we benefit from expectations?

They help you define clearly your goals and do all the needful to achieve them. They keep you accountable to your success or failure. Having them is a clear sign of your mastery over your game. Set expectations that stretch and inspire excellence. They are like development plans you communicate to yourself or to others. They are standards you set, agree that should guide you. Have them clear enough and easily but strongly attainable. These can easily affect your life. See how.

How do expectations affect us?

Abiding by the Laws or Rules of expectations easily influence your reality and creates results. As individuals, setting expectations tend to make better decisions based on how others expect you to perform or deliver. Expectations have a powerful impact on those we trust and respect, but, interestingly, an even greater impact on perfect outsiders.

Outsiders can easily decipher our expectations through our body language, our tone of voice or the type of influence we make on them. In my yesterday post, I talked about people giving up. What came to my mind their lack of expectations for the challenge.

As teacher, I understand this perfectly because every year I set up a expectations for my class, my students and myself as an employee. This determines the way I carry my lessons, I handle my students and comport myself as a worker. It gives me a sense of urgency and serves as stepping stone for my career and my life in whole.

That’s why I always connect with people with higher expectations. Whenever I watch or listen to them, read their books or articles , I can understand the type of expectations the place on themselves and the ones they would like to see in other people life. They really want their viewers, listeners and readers to meet certain standards. And that is a push up,a clear call to action.

Finally remember that your expectations should not be vague, biased or flattered. No. They rather should be SMART[(Specific (simple, sensible, significant), Measurable (meaningful, motivating), Achievable (agreed, attainable), Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based), Time bound )]

Now that you have understood the importance of and relevance of setting expectations in our life , if you fail to set them, don’t expect anything from yourself or from anyone.

Before I sign out, please do well to answer the question I asked at the beginning of the article right after the definition.

By Tamoskoff

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