How To Manage Expectations

It is well after midnight and I shouldn’t be writing but you don’t become a better writer without doing a lot of reading and writing so here I am.

Add a late nap and a cup of coffee and you have a recipe for keeping me up all night long which truth be told isn’t all that hard to do because I am a natural night owl. Night time is among my favorite times to sit down at the computer because there is something about this time that lends itself to writing.

How To Manage Expectations

My son and I have had multiple conversations about the benefits of managing expectations and why it is something worth doing. The genesis of the conversation stems from his frustration with how people assume he is going to behave or react a certain way to specific situations.

I understand it because I don’t like it any more than he does. It is the kind of thing that has practical applications in both business and life. Much of life is contingent upon our ability to get along with others and if you learn how to manage expectations in your personal and professional worlds than good things tend to happen.

Call it over delivering on the promises we make to others.

Realistic and Unrealistic Expectations

During our most recent talk I suggested that he take control of the situation by doing something that was unexpected. If people expected that he would complain about not liking his food than he could turn that around by making a point to show that he was willing to try the meal without complaint or he could come up with a reasonable suggestion for how to fix things before they turned into a problem.

Within a business environment you might start things out by having a conversation about expectations so that all parties come to a consensus about how they expect the project to go. Establish a baseline and benchmark for the budget and time frame and you avoid problems.

Sometimes it helps to over communicate so that you know everyone has heard what you are saying and understands where you are coming from, or at least that is the goal.

Expectations in Blogging

When it comes to blogging my goal is to avoid to avoid building a blog that is written solely for SEO and Google Authorship. The goal is to become a better writer and communicator and my way of doing that is to generate large amounts of content.

If it works the way I want it to the community that develops around this blog will be like minded people who believe there is value in generating content that isn’t entirely niche based. They’ll appreciate personal stories intermixed with thoughts about business and won’t mind if we digress or occasionally take a turn down the road not taken.

There are a million posts about blogging and about the need to provide value in the content so that you don’t waste your reader’s time, but there aren’t as many that talk about the needs of the writer.

Relationships are Two Way Streets

If I am going to provide content that is useful, interesting, valuable and insightful than I have to be able to write with passion, interest and personality.

So that means here in my corner of cyberspace I am willing to take some chances and that though I will always chase perfection I am willing to post things that aren’t perfect. It means that I work to silence the voice of the internal editor and that I believe these things are mutually beneficial for both you and I.

We have a relationship as author and reader. Relationships are two way streets and we both need to feel like we are getting something out of this or it won’t work.

It is after midnight now and the call of my bed has become siren like, so I will say goodnight. Share your thoughts in the comments and I will see you in the morning.