Setting Expectations

I had 2 interesting conversations the past few days that seemed to fit the flow this week.

We make plans in our life, sometimes big plans, sometimes smaller ones. These plans may be a our business plan of sales the week, the activities your company or restaurant will be hosting next month, a vacation of a lifetime, the place we think our marriage or children will be in 5 or 10 years, or as simple as dinner with friends.

For some background; I was employed by a major retail company for many years and was trained to set a customer's expectations, then strive to exceed them. This has impacted me in 2 ways. First it fits my mind set of always doing my best, but also taught me that when others are involved I can't control the actions of other people, or the very long supply chain before the product gets to where I have more control of the situation. This came into clear focus during 2020 when nothing in the supply chain was predictable, but I attempted to set the most realistic expectations I had with the information to pass along at purchase, and communicate with the end consumer as frequently as possible during the process. Secondly, it made me set the customer's expectations to longer timelines, higher prices, or any other part of the process that I thought might be able to be exceeded to have happier customers.

Its been only a few years since this was my world, but somehow I had forgotten this important life mantra, and needed to be reminded. Why? Because making big happy plans for weeks or months, only to have a big storm, one of the participants gets sick, the car break down, or only half of the guests show up and many of them are late and not setting a realistic expectation from the beginning can start a spiral of depression, resentment, or anger. None of those reactions are healthy, they are normal, but they can become debilitating if allowed to continue.

Making sure we start with the proper expectation of our situations, even if it isn't what we really want as an outcome, in the timeline we initially wanted our project to be completed, or the revenue we anticipated to bring in, this is what makes projects successful. Directing the outcome to the goal, while allowing for variance is reality. Having checkpoints in a timeline keeps a project moving along, those checkpoints tell whether the end date may have to be adjusted and setting an expectation to that end be it sooner or later than originally planned. Expectations of revenue from sales in a retail/restaurant setting as a big picture instead of hour by hour is often more a productive expectation, but a fundraising appeal may have to come from a different perspective. Knowing where to put your energy, both physical and mental, is important.

There are times in life that an expectation, no matter how low the bar is set or how realistic it is, prepares us for the path a project, situation, or relationship takes a person or organization. Then what? Do we abandon the project or relationship, or are we at a point that we are so committed that there is no turning back?

There is sometimes no right answer. There is no same answer for every situation. There isn't even a common answer for different people with similar situations because for some it's step back and reassess, and others its a completely different approach. And that is what makes life so difficult for some and interesting for others. Even with the best of intentions and expectations at the beginning, we all face obstacles it comes down to how we handle them ourselves and how those around us accept our choices because they are ours alone to live with.