Posted on 5/16/2016 by Rosalea Peters, WEO Media Staff
"High expectations are the key to everything." Sam Walton
"I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine." Bruce Lee
The wisdom of the ages as it relates to the idea of expectations appears to be contradictory. On the one hand many of the wise have told us that having expectations leads us to a life of disappointment and suffering. The other camp espouses the idea that all greatness comes from having expectations.
So which is it?
As is so often the case, the devil is in the details. The key (I think) lies within the assignments of who is the “holder” of the expectation and who is the “target” of the expectation. You may hold an expectation of yourself or you may hold an expectation for another. Other’s may have expectations of you or of themselves.
Sam Walton grew up on a farm in Oklahoma where they couldn’t make enough money to sustain their family. We now know that he went on to build WalMart, the single largest private employer in the US with over 2.3 million people in their ranks. Sam’s advice is that expectations are the key. Not just to creating something, but to everything.
We can also think about the context of Bruce Lee’s comment. He attained a super-hero like greatness, because of his own expectations of himself, not because of what others expected from him.
Yes, having big expectations of yourself seems to be a very important part of how we become our best selves, but the less visible part is probably just as important. All expectations, especially those we hold for other people, need to be tempered with compassion and acceptance. Failure is a necessary component of achieving high goals and when failures occur on the way to those expectations we cannot let it derail our desire to reset and continue to try again.
Aim high for yourself and support all of those around who come along with you!
Have a great week!
-Mark
Mondays With Mark is a weekly inspirational post from WEO Media partner and co-owner, Mark Hutchinson. At WEO Media, we're more than your average marketing agency - and we want to inspire our staff and followers to reach their highest potential. To learn more about us, visit our website at weomedia.com.
Dental Marketing Blog | Marketing for Dentists | WEO Media WEO Media is a national dental marketing company providing dentists with a full range of services including custom websites, SEO, PPC, social media, videos, online reputation management, branding, and much more. WEO Media, 125 S. 1st Ave, P.O. Box 249, Hillsboro, OR 97123 / 888-788-4670 / weomedia.com / 9/13/2024 / Key Phrases: Dental marketing, websites for dentists, SEO for dentists, social media for dentists, online reputation for dentists
The wisdom of the ages as it relates to the idea of expectations appears to be contradictory. On the one hand many of the wise have told us that having expectations leads us to a life of disappointment and suffering. The other camp espouses the idea that all greatness comes from having expectations.
