Shortcast Why Expectations Hurt

2023-11-05

We all have them occasionally, so why do expectations hurt? Because most of the time, they are unrealistic, and we are attached to the outcome. On the show today, we are exploring expectations, why the hurt when not met and how we can become less attached and free ourselves from the pain.Today, I was running a 10k race, a real one that would give me an official time. Last year I ran this race About a month after I completed a marathon, and I achieved a time of 50 minutes and one second. it was very frustrating having just tipped over the 50 minutes.There is a story here, but the long and short is when I booked this r...

We all have them occasionally, so why do expectations hurt? Because most of the time, they are unrealistic, and we are attached to the outcome.

On the show today, we are exploring expectations, why the hurt when not met and how we can become less attached and free ourselves from the pain.

Today, I was running a 10k race, a real one that would give me an official time. Last year I ran this race About a month after I completed a marathon, and I achieved a time of 50 minutes and one second. it was very frustrating having just tipped over the 50 minutes.

There is a story here, but the long and short is when I booked this race, I had an expectation that I would train hard and reach my goal of a sub 49 minute 10K. But the training did not happen, and there I was at the start line and in my opinion, I was not ready for it.

However, it allowed me to release my expectations. I approached this race with the sense that if I could get under 55 minutes, I would be happy enough, but if I could actually get below 50 minutes, that would be an achievement. Did I achieve it? Actually, I was pleasantly surprised.

The point of this conversation today is that we are looking at expectations and why they trip us up. It is always about an attachment to the outcome. When the target becomes more important than the journey to get there, we make the target really important. That is when we open ourselves to the pain of failure.
The solution is smart goals that are a stretch but will fall back positions.

Check out the podcast and get in touch if you need support with your expectations.

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