Unlike some people, I prefer reading a book than watching a movie. This is specially true when I know that a book has already been transformed into a movie.
The problem is that after reading a good book my expectations are so high that I get discouraged to watch the movie. I think it’s the fear of getting disappointed with the movie or something like that. There are at least three books/movies that belong to this category. I simply loved the books, but I’ll have to convince myself to watch “Perfume The Story of a Murderer” and “Blindness“. The third movie I also have high expectation is the upcoming “Alice In Wonderland” (from Tim Burton). “Alice” is the current bedside book…
Today was my first working day after almost a month vacation. The day started slow but the working rate increased to normal quite quickly, and before lunch my production rate was as strong as before leaving for vacations. It was a good start because usually it takes almost two full days to get the ‘engine’ started.
This conquest leads me to think about some new year resolutions that I made:
- fulfill only the strictly mandatory work hours
- take more time for myself, my family and my things
- enjoy all my vacation days
- travel more, during vacation but also by making regular weekend “escapades”
- relax and enjoy the little things
- support more, the people around me
oh, and a last one, write more…
Expectation can be defined in several ways. According to the wikipedia, expectation is “a belief that is centred on the future”; or following the dictionary.com, expectation is “the act or state of looking forward or anticipating” or “an expectant mental attitude”. Personal expectations refer to the way each personality looks forward into the future. It can be in terms of health, family or career.
This post is about managing expectation in terms of a professional career. When someone plans for the short or long-term future, he is creating some kind of expectations. The kind of expectations is closely connected with the current job. Whether your are being asked to or asking someone to do something, influences the way you create expectation on the final product.
To avoid ambiguity about expected results, each work plan detail and expected outcome should be thoroughly discussed and agreed upon. Even when an agreement is reached, the expectation levels must be monitored to avoid disappointment.
In a society (as happens to be the case when inside a company), the attention to the level of expectation in the people around you is very important. Expectation management is necessary to create a stable equilibrium between expectation and results, and is essentially a periodic monitoring process.
Almost everyone has expectations, personal expectations. It is natural that each person should rise or lower their expectation according their state-of-mind (I know I do!). The way to create a stable level of expectation is to offer an adequate level of compensation in demand of the corresponding workload.
At the moment, my state of mind is making me feel that I’m not receiving as must as I’m being asked for. Let’s hope this changes quickly.
