EXPECTATIONS ARE BETTER THAN GOALS
I sat down with a friend this week to devour some of the best Chinese food in Missouri. He started our conversation by telling me that he’d written out his “expectations” for this year. “What a strange way of saying goals,” I thought to myself, “Aren’t they the same thing?” But after thinking about it, I realized that expectations are much more powerful than goals.
Everyone knows the problem with New Years Resolutions. They are lofty lifestyle changes that only 8% of people achieve. Instead, most fail before February.
Goals are great! As a person that scores high on the Achiever Theme, I am all about goals. The problem with goals is that there’s still a connotation of chance–a possibility of failure.
We say things like:
“My goal is to have my car paid off this year”
or
“I hope to have lost 10 pounds by summer.”
After that, we get motivated for a couple of weeks, cross our fingers, and hope for the best!
I’m going to change my mindset this year. Instead of just hoping, I’m going to make expectations that I will accomplish. This is where the power of mindset crashes into practical application.
If you say, “I will pay off my car this year,” It’s going to change how you handle your finances. Swiping your card for a $5 coffee you don’t need is going to hurt because you have a higher expectation for yourself.
Ask any professional bodybuilder what they think before they lift a record weight. Ask any self-made billionaire. I promise they didn’t set hopeful goals; they set unwavering expectations on themselves to get to where they wanted to go.
Take 10 minutes today and write out your expectations for the year. Don’t stop there! Say them out loud. Tell your spouse, your co-worker, and your best friend. You have to put some skin in the game.
I expect that this year will be your most successful yet.
-Caleb
Pro tip: Because a year is such a long time, divide your expectations into meaningful chunks. If you expect to lose 10 pounds before May, call it 2 pounds per month instead.
