It won’t work. It’s hard. I’m not good at that. They won’t do it. You gotta be lucky. The situation I’m looking for doesn’t exist. This is the way things are. It’s easy. People and situations line up to help. Others have done this or something like it; I bet we can, too. I may […]
Maybe this sounds silly, trite, or just plain wrong. Yet we see daily reminders of how reality generally matches what we expect. A quick look back at our thoughts and beliefs about a subject shows that they match current results. If we agree that we get what we expect, why don’t we simply choose to […]
Assuming we know the outcomes we want to see, there are two ways we can approach any given situation. We can worry about how it will happen. Or we can watch with excited expectation as it unfolds. Whichever we choose will determine how effective our planning and actions will be. We take the heavy, former […]
Yes, expect more. But what we expect matters. If we expect specifics–especially what a specific person or situation could or should give us–we will have a bad time. We see this in sales when we put faith in one opportunity to make our number for the quarter. We see this in leadership when we micromanage […]
We all always get the level of success we expect. Want more? Expect more. In your corner, Mike PS: Rien de plus simple, oui? PPS: By expect, I don’t mean, “I expect you to finish your dinner, young man!” I mean, “quietly, excitedly anticipate like a dog waiting for her human to come back home.” […]
One way to succeed is to act as if we have already achieved the essence of whatever it is we wanted. For example, we might say that the essence of doubling our revenue is a sense of winning or of supreme security. The essence of landing a new role could be knowing that we fit or are worthy. And […]
In yesterday’s note, we saw how our beliefs about people’s capabilities affect their performance. Regardless of how much we may want them to do well, if we think they won’t, they likely won’t. If we expect them to do well, they very likely will. But how do we set up this positive anticipation? And how do […]
We get what we expect. Not what we hope, not what we think should be. This is true in general and it is especially true for getting other people to do stuff. When we plead or demand that others do stuff or when we worry about or criticize them for their inability to do stuff, […]
We can live life and lead others as if we are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Anticipating that something bad is bound to happen (because, it always does, right?), we exist on high alert. We divert quite large quantities of time, energy, and effort to preventing, preparing for, and dealing with a sea of unwanted […]
If we expect that meeting or this interaction to go poorly, it will. If we are even concerned a bit, our results will fall short of what we desire…regardless of what we might do to achieve those results. If, on the other hand, we expect that things will go well and if we can remain […]