Raise your expectations

“A high expectation of success is the single most valuable quality you can bring into any challenging situation. A high expectation of success is more important than natural ability or the lack thereof. It’s more important than practice or preparation. This has been proven in any number of controlled experiments.”
Denis Waitley: The New Dynamics of Winning

Another paradox: high expectations have the greatest leverage when your world is upside down, if for no other reason than there is nowhere to go but up. It is precisely when the weight of an upside world is resting upon your shoulders that it is hardest for you to create those high expectations, and to believe in their ultimate realization.

T.J. Rodgers is CEO of the Cypress Semiconductor Company. He has a sign behind his desk that reads: “Be reasonable, demand the impossible.” Year after year, his company does exactly that; in a cutthroat industry, it delivers near-impossible results.

I often ask Values Coach clients what I call the “magic wand” question: If you could wave a magic wand and have anything happen, what would it be? That’s a great question for you to ask yourself when your world has turned upside down. Then turn the answer to that question, whatever it is, into your expectation for the future. Be reasonable, demand the possible, and expect a miracle!