Expectations

Nothing gets me in trouble faster than false expectations. This can go either way: I think something is going to be a nightmare and it turns out to be just fine, or I think something is going to be super awesome and it ends up being a let down.  The lesson?  Go into things with an open mind and be ready to change your strategy at a moment’s notice.

I remember reading some years ago that humans tend to overestimate risk where this isn’t much, and underestimate risk when there is a lot of risk.  Ain’t that the truth. We get in our cars without thinking for a second the risks of driving, yet get nervous when flying, where the odds are so much lower that anything would ever happen to you.  We might fret and worry about the quality of a relatively minor purchase we intend to make – a computer or washing machine – yet think nothing of plunking our 401K savings into the volatile stock market.

One behavior I’ve worked on over the years is getting myself all worked up before a meeting where I expect a confrontation. I’ve worked on it because I’ve discovered the confrontation I expected rarely materialized. I lost sleep and added a few gray hairs for now reason.

Think about it for a moment – how much energy have you put into worrying about a problem that never materialized? Where else could that energy have been put that would have been a better choice and a more productive choice?   I think I could climb Mount Everest if I could bottle up the lost energy I put into worrying about stuff that never happened.