CHANGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

I was catching up with a colleague over lunch and we were discussing how our businesses were going. I was surprised when she said:

“Damnit it! Why am I not farther along on my journey?”

“Why haven’t I made the money I “should” be making by now?”

This was news to me because she was known for having a full roster of clients on a regular basis. I thought she was making bank and had never heard her complain.

To me, she was someone who looked like she had it all together. Great business, happy family life and from the outside, no worries — especially about money and a potential lack of clients

Yet we all know that things are not always what they seem.

We look at our colleagues and friends and compare our lives to theirs. If your best friend’s business is super successful while you are still working a corporate job, you may be wondering when it will finally be your turn to be successful?

Everything we achieve comes down to the expectations we set around ourselves and how we want our lives to look.

When you have high expectations combined with off the charts perfectionism and there is a “misstep”, that’s when most people quit when in reality, what you accomplished was probably extraordinary.

The definition of an expectation is a strong belief that you will or should achieve something.

Everyone has a different idea of what the right expectations are for their business.

The expectations we create support foundations that will either bring us to an outstanding end result or hold us back from achieving what we truly want in our lives.

So how do expectations work against us and stop us from being happy?

“WHEN YOU SEE PERFECTION AS THE NORM, YOU ARE UNDER

THE ILLUSION THAT IT WILL BE QUICK, FAST AND EASY.” — — Julie

My parents were both exceptional teachers and entrepreneurs. They raised us to set goals for ourselves and once you reached that goal, you needed to immediately set the bar higher.

Expectations were into the stratosphere. Perfection was not expected, yet it was understood you would do NO LESS THAN your very best and in that, perfection was assumed and thought of as right around the corner.

As I saw my parents make success look so easy, I thought it would be simple for me as well.

I didn’t pay attention to all the long nights they worked, how hard they pushed themselves along with the many hours they sacrificed spent honing their craft.

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

How you want your life and business to look all comes down to this one very important question: What are your expectations?

Your expectations are what shape your emotions and thoughts on any given outcome.

If you are not where you want to be, the good news is that expectations can be changed just as quickly as you create them.

For example, let’s look at what some of your expectations might be and see if they are supporting you.

Please pay attention to the wording used and how your body feels with the change in words.

CAREER:

I HAVE TO MAKE $250,000, drive a Mercedes and have 3 offices, only then will I be successful vs I DESIRE to make enough money to be HAPPY, travel and save a portion of what I earn, so I don’t have to work so hard later.

Can you see and feel the difference certain words make and how they affect your body?

The first sentence is full of “I Have To”, and “I Want” which puts an extreme amount of pressure on the person performing the tasks.

The second phrase includes words like “I Desire” and “Be Happy”.

These phrases should feel so much better in your physical body and will give you much needed time and space, allowing your business to become greater than you imagined, without the added pressure.

YOUR IDEA OF PERFECTION WITHIN YOUR BUSINESS IS REPELLING CLIENTS & KILLING YOUR HAPPINESS

No matter what you do professionally, your thoughts around your expectations and what you “think” perfect looks like, are killing your chances of being happy if they are not flexible.

For example, if you are writing a blog post and thinking “This post must be perfect. It has to succeed in getting people’s attention and it MUST be noticed or else I have failed.” You are making a pact with yourself that this must be executed flawlessly.

It doesn’t leave you any room to make changes, course correct or face yourself if the blog post does not perform to your high expectations. It can also make you nervous, give you anxiety and even depression if you don’t get the results you expected.

In essence, you are putting so much pressure on yourself to be perfect, that you are not allowing yourself the opportunity to fail, to be better or even fully express who and what you are for fear others will not accept you and your ideas.

It’s great to want to do your best, yet here is the secret to a happy life:

NOTHING IS PERFECT!

There is no perfect person.

There is no perfect Job.

The only perfect thing in all the world is Spirit. That is all.

WHEN YOU RELEASE YOUR PERFECT EXPECTATIONS, YOU CAN RELAX INTO HAPPINESS INSTEAD OF PRESSURE.

If nothing is perfect, I want to encourage you to release your expectations of being perfect.

Let go of your thoughts around having the perfect business or trying to find the perfect clients — they don’t exist…yet there is someone out there who is perfect for you to do business with.

Release your thoughts around being the perfect entrepreneur — it doesn’t exist.

In other words, don’t stress so much and begin to ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Life doesn’t always go the way we plan, that is on purpose so we can learn, laugh, and begin again.

Make life fun!

Let go of what others think or why you’re not where you think you should be “by now!”

Begin to bring in thoughts like:

“I am learning new skills that will help me branch into other markets. This takes time but it is time well spent and my business will be better for it in the long run.”

“My business is growing, although it is not as fast as I would like, it is going in the right direction.”

As my father used to say, “Enjoy the journey and don’t sweat the small stuff — and it’s all small stuff!”

Give yourself a break and begin to enjoy your life and all that it offers. You deserve the best and it will make you a lot happier in the long run.

- Julie