The Value of Having No Expectations with Dr. Eric Bean
Summary
What are you doing to manage your expectations? Expectations at first glance seem harmless, but they overall can harm how we perform. In a world that demands constant productivity and success, especially in sports and business, expectations can lead to stress, disappointment, lack of fulfillment, and distraction.
You may also think that the consequence of having expectations lies solely in fear of not meeting them, but in truth, even meeting your expectations in the future can hurt your present. Expectations make us have an unhealthy response or attachment to the outcome, either distracting our performance or sometimes even making us incapable of celebrating positive results when we meet them.
So how can we avoid these adverse effects? In this episode, we explore the benefits of having zero expectations—not just settling for managing or lowering them. We’ll dive into why expectations can affect our performance in different ways and why removing them from the equation can lead to better performance and comparatively better results.
Let’s learn more in today’s Coaching Through Stories Episode with Dr. Eric Bean!
Key Points:
- We cannot deny the fact that our mind is a powerful asset in generating the right conditions to achieve our goals. It’s the reason why the placebo effect is so powerful.
- Keep your belief about your ability, about your goals, and about your dreams extremely high, just do so without the word “should.”
- Our minds are constantly generating expectations – our brains love patterns and are searching for patterns, being overly attached and expecting this result just because it’s happened in the past limits our ability to perform in the present and be consumed by the process.
Episode Highlights
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- [00:00] Introduction
- [01:37] Defining expectations and why they affect us negatively
- [04:51] The Expectation Gap
- [05:49] How expectations interfere with our performance
- [06:28] Having zero expectations is not an indication of a lack of confidence
- [07:23] How expectations interfere with our relationships
- [10:28] Addressing “The Pygmalion Effect”
- [11:43] How expectations interfere with our happiness
- [13:08] Forecasting possibilities and having hope and self-belief instead of expectations
- [17:02] Become conscious of when your mind automatically sets expectations
Resources Mentioned:
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