TRANSFORM 4 The Expectation

TRANSFORM 4. The Expectation

Philanthropy is involved with basic innovations that transform society, not simply maintaining the status quo or filling basic social needs that were formerly the province of the public sector.

David Rockefeller

So it isn’t what you expected?

I know a line or two from old bible texts. There is one line I love and it is this.

‘Fear is the expectation of things not yet beheld’ Hebrews 11:1

I like it because life and business can be like that.

We can build expectations based on what we want to happen.

When those expectations fail to be met or next expectation can be filled with fear.

And as life carries on so does the fears of anything working out.

So fear now becomes our set expectation rather than hope. Interesting right?

Yet what if you can create expectations that become a reality?

It’s a lot easier than you might have ever been taught or heard.

There’s a woman I know that is obsessed by the future. She goes to everyone and anyone that will predict her future. She wants her future to be just perfect. She expects her future to be just perfect.

Her expectation is met with disappointment every time.

Why?

She expects her business to do well just because it should do well.

She expects her life to run well because she expects her life to run well.

She expects her home relationships to be perfect because she expects then to be perfect.

None of them are perfect and the reason for that is very simple.

What she is doing today is a reflection of what her current state is tomorrow. Her current state tomorrow is a direct result of what she did yesterday.

In other words what we plant right now is what will grow in the future. So if we want expectations to be met we must plan accordingly and aim to make sure we hit our expectations.

I had a client that wanted to grow his business to £500,000 per year. He expected it to grow to that amount. His business was new and had been given a good investment into it’s creation.

After I did some consulting for him we talked about his goal of £500,000. Top hit a number the path to that number has to be carefully worked out. Based on people traffic and then how nay of those people would convert or buy based on average I could now report to him he needed a particular number of people going through his store. To drive those people through his store meant he would have to do a certain amount of advertising. Advertising is also easy to measure when done properly. Each advert has a system where the numbers of viewers, shows and conversion are tracked.

Now after giving him the numbers to hit £500,000 guess what he did?

He rejected the plan as he didn’t want to make the investment into what was needed to get his goal of £500,000.

At this stage, I decided not to work with him as I felt his expectations were distorted and not only would he be disappointed but that disappointment would reflect on myself.

I went my way and he carried on his way.

Around eight months later his store closed at a huge loss. His two new Landover cars, his beautiful freshly decorated new home and most of what he owned including his store were not only closed but he was declared bankrupt.

It wasn’t what he expected yet his actions each day were already revealing the outcome for him. He ignored the actions and felt he deserved the outcome despite the messages.

It is hard to deny the reality of cause and effect. It is difficult to say we don’t reap what we sow because the reality of what takes place reveals otherwise.

If you have an expectation of an outcome you really need to ask yourself what are you doing right now for that expected outcome to take place?

The future – your future – in certain things can easily be seen and that vision is easier than you think.

For example, if you hate your job but never do anything about and yet hope that one day you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams what do you think the reality will be?

If your business isn’t doing well and yet you never actually change anything to allow your business to change direction what do you think the expectation and outcome will be?

Transformation comes through change. Change comes through actions. Actions are planned according to where you are right now. Are you in a good place?

Are you in a bad place?

Are you off track?

Will what you are doing give you the expectation and transformation needed.

If you had to tell someone where you will be in 12 months how would you reply? Why would you reply that way? Do you think your reply is accurate and could be expected according to what you are doing right now?

If you want to know hat your future expectations are all you really have to do is look at what you are doing right now.

A man that had a serious illness wanted to know if he would live to see his children grow old. The man was told he could take a certain course of action and that action would give him a good chance of success with his health.

He had two options.

Ignore the course of action and just hope everything will be fine.

Take the medicine and build his hopes and expectations around recovery and a transformed health.

In other words, he had an opportunity to plan his future.

How about you?

If you have expectations of certain things outcomes in life and business yet those expectations are not being met you need to take some action to put yourself back on track.

Everyone loses his or her way now and then, it isn’t a bad thing. Everyone also has the same opportunity to put him or herself back on track.

Your future is a choice.

Your transformation is a choice.

Your expectations are a choice.

Your CHOICE!

Not tool long ago I shared my own stay where I was not just broke but broke, homeless, divorced, alone and spending my nights sitting with dead men’s bones in a graveyard. I saw no way out in those days.

My family was at a full-blown war with me. I had lost everything. My own expectations of life had certainly been thrown out of the window.

Just to clarify at this stage

I had lost my car

I had lost my family

I had lost my house

I had lost my business

I had lost my senses

I was losing my health fast

Not only did I not have £100 pounds in my pocket I didn’t have £1! I was borrowing pennies to get a bus to and from to different places.

What a mess.

In my own life, I always aim high. I expect to win. I expect the best outcome. I never think of failure. I do what I need to do to make things happen.

Yet this time, the weight of life had become so gigantically great I was being crushed to death literally.

I had expected a wonderful life with wonderful everything. Now here I was in 2010 with absolutely not a thing to my name. I had gone from massive five bedroomed self-built home with a one-acre garden and everything I needed in life to no car, no garden and living in a borrowed room that was just 8 x 6 foot in size. Utterly depressing!

Can you imagine how shattered my own expectations were?

I had a choice.

Sink and literally die.

Take control and make something anything happen.

I am here now. I have the most wonderful life with my wife. A good business, a great home and everything I need in my life.

I know transformation is possible. I know your expectations despite falling can be met.

All you have to do is pick yourself up and make the changes needed.

Business is the same. Business is s reflection of life – your life.

If nothing is working right now, if you need transformation, if you really want your expectations to be met you have to do something different.

That something different might be uncomfortable. It might go against your own grain. It might make you feel a fear you haven’t felt before.

Yet you know that you have to make changes to hit expectations. And you might have no given up and now expect nothing but the worst.

I know a guy that expects nothing but the worse. Recently he set up a new business. I called him one week in and he told me everything was a disaster. His expectation had been set at zero before he started. He expected failure and got failure.

Here’s what is interesting; where you set your expectation despite what you do that expectation will be carried out. He was doing what looked like a new successful mission to get his business off the ground yet he expected disaster. Guess what? After just NINE weeks his business is over!

I wasn’t surprised and you know what he said to me? He said I knew it would turn out like this!

So ask yourself with you life and your business what is it you actually expect? Can you fine-tune those expectations? Can you make them more realistic, more in harmony and in tune with your own needs and desires?

It’s fine reading about the mountains that others have climbed yet their mountain isn’t yours. You know you are going to need to create your own path. A path that is in harmony with how you feel, how you think and of course your own capabilities.