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Are Your Expectations Known to You?

Guest post by: Linda Ockwell-Jenner

Article Overview: We enter the world with high expectations. Somehow we know our parents will feed us, and look after us until we are able to look after ourselves. We attend educational institutions and know that the teachers are paid to teach us. We then enter the world of career choices, we find the perfect job for us and then, well it all falls apart.

Are Your Expectations Known to You?

How often do we think that others know our expectations? Let's take for an example a partnership between a man and a wife. How often are the expectations of each other discussed before deciding to live together, marry or hang out with each other? When chosing a partner for life it is always a good idea to know what is expected of each other, otherwise one or other in the relationship may feel let down or disappointed or even angry as time goes on.

We all know that we are at our best when first introduced to someone, we are on our best behaviour and that leads to trust and friendship and many other things. The challenges occur when, after a certain amount of time one persons behaviour may change, or the expectations of one of the people involved in the relationship may not be perceived as what was expected in the beginning.

We may or may not know our expectations, we sometimes fail to pass them onto someone important in our life. It may be that the other person can read you so well you think they can read your mind, unfortunately, this is not the case. It is not a guessing game, unless we are very clear on our expecations issues will arise.

When we are in a position where we enter the workplace and enjoy an incredible career working with wonderful people, we may fail to realise that these people are under very few obligations to us. They are in no way expected to read our minds, know what we want, unless we convey this information to them. They are not there to babysit us as our parents may have done in the past.

Knowing our expecations, but also knowing how to communicate them to others can prevent serious challenges for us and for the people we work with.

You may be a perfectionist, someone who always sees the other people in your workplace doing a second rate job, or their work is never up to standard. You fail to recognize that not everyone is like you, your expecations of yourself are very high, but to force your expecations on someone else, without the chance for them to know what you want, is unfair.

In another situation you may be the person who is constantly taking time off work and your expecation is that the Manager will understand and, well your parents understood when you had time off school. Unfortunately, unless there is a good reason why you are not present at work, and unless you have made it clear in the beginning what your expectation, you may find yourself out of a job.

There are so many scenarios where someones expecations were higher than other peopls, or vice versa. It is down to you knowing yourself first and foremost and then conveying to others so that they are prepared and know the situation. We fail to realise that others do not know us as well as we think we know ourselves. On the other hand it is always a good idea to get to know ourselves, as others see us, not as we see ourselves. An easy way to find out about ourseslves is to look for a self awareness programe that you can complete easily and will offer you an insight into how others may perceive you.

In the end our high, or low expecations, can affect our lives in many ways and sometimes not to our benefit.

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Article Tags: amount of time, best behaviour, challenges, friendship, guessing game, parents, partnership, rate job, relationship, time one



Related Forum Posts
Re: looking for partner - Partnerships in business can be tricky. Most partnerships fail. Here are a few points to ponder before starting a partnership: - Should have common goal and vision - Level of commitment in business - Expectations from business and each other. - Good sense of self-worth - Financial Position – Have a good experience in related business with strong financial standing I suggest you to go on Google type “Partnership Assessment form” and Partnership Assessment Tool” You find some good results. Further apart from this forum look into on social media and business sites.
Re: Non-profit Organizations - I helped set up a non-profit charity for helping stray pets and people who had lost their pets in our local area last year. There are so many things I learned from the experience, I'm not sure where to start. First of all, I hold to the teaching if you can dream it, you can do it! In one way, it was incredibly easy to find support for something we were so passionate about. On the other hand, our passion needed to be tampered with reason so that we didn't burn ourselves out. It is so important to set things in order as soon as possible. There should be an official board of directors and at least general protocols set in place for key services. Expectations among board members should be clear. Keep non-urgent decision making to during meetings only! Otherwise, you will be working 24 hours a day! And make sure you use your volunteers as soon as you get clarity on your first steps. Clarify your message as a whole before you take it to the public. Otherwise, you will create confusion on what you do or don't do. It was really helpful to connect with other organizations in the area who had a similar mission. In our case, we met with the SPCA so we could avoid doubling up on services and instead fill in the gaps of what they were unable to provide in our area. Fundraising IS important, but make sure you are keeping up with the services you offer. The mission of your organization is the priority. In a nutshell, setting up a charity was a great experience, but I certainly didn't need to work as hard as I did. I plan on doing it again in about 2 years where I will set up a charity to help women in both Canada and Third World countries.


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