No Air Conditioning + Expectation Management

 

Psych & Such    |    23 June 2021

Today the air conditioning unit in my rental house went down.  Mind you, we're in the dead of summer...in LOUISIANA!  This isn't something you can ignore.  Or I could, but I would have angry tenants.  

This incident reminds me of how easy is it to get comfortable in our day-to-day expectations.  We wake up and expect traffic to flow so we can get to work on time, expect our scheduled meetings to happen on time and achieve what we desire, and expect our family, peers, and leadership to exceed the bar we've set for them.  Heck, we expect our AC to keep us comfortable.

Situations and outliers that infringe on our expectations are difficult to face and manage!

Sometimes traffic is thick and unruly and we find ourselves late to work.

Sometimes our meetings end up rescheduled or our agendas are thwarted.

Sometimes we're reminded that our family, peers, and leadership are human as they confess their flaws and reveal their room for improvement. 

Expectations can keep us accountable, but they can also hold us rigidly to standards that may not be attainable and sustainable in all situations, across time, and with all people.  As a way to remain resilient when your expectations aren't met, try contingency planning.  Think through how, when, where, and why people, situations, or opportunities may miss the mark of hitting your expectations.  Then, plan how to handle the emotions, reactions, short-term and long-term considerations, and social consequences associated with the fall-out of any outlier and adversity that strikes.  This puts you in the driver's seat of ambiguity and provides you clarity that is needed when the worst-case scenario presents itself.  

We won't ever or always know how, when, or why things fall apart like they do...but we can improve our reaction time and quality of response by being deliberate and proactive in thinking through how we might best handle negative and unexpected situations.