Several years ago while I was in college, a professor told me that people tend to get what they think about all of the time. If someone thinks negative thoughts on a regular basis, they are bound to have a pretty miserable life. He explained that the opposite is also true for a positive thinker. At the time, I remember pondering this and agreeing that it seemed to make sense. It doesn’t seem like a ground breaking theory. How many of the people that you know who have horrific attitudes tend to have a lot of good happen in their lives? Probably none of them. And if they did, they would likely find a way to whine about how it happened to them at the wrong time.
it wasn’t until I had started my own direct sales business that I changed my mind on this theory. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe positive thinkers tend to get more good results than Debbie downers, but I discovered that it is deeper than that.
When I first started my business, I knew almost nothing about building a team or moving products to an end consumer. I did not have a lot of success early on, mostly because I was busy doing a lot of nothing. I was not focussed on result producing activities, and barely even knew what that meant. Long story short, I was clueless when it came to business building, and thankfully I did something about it and turned everything around. But that’s another story for another post.
So during this period of trial and error, I decided that I was only going to think positive thoughts about my floundering business to see if that would change my results. I will say that I probably noticed an improvement in certain areas of my business, but I continued to fail in most areas.
Then one day I was watching (yes I said watching) a playoff football game and Seattle was beating up on whoever they were playing. I don’t even remember who their opponent was, but I do remember during the post game interviews, one of the Seattle players told a reporter “we just expected to win. We always expect to win.” At first I thought he was just being cocky, but then it hit me. That’s what I was doing wrong with my business. Sure, I had a lot to learn in terms of the fundamentals, but my expectations were all wrong.
You see, I kept wishing and hoping that my hard work would pay off. That I would accomplish all of my goals as an entrepreneur and prove to myself that I was worthy of success. But here is the key … I didn’t expect it. Yes there was a part of me that believed I could be successful as an entrepreneur, but I didn’t expect success. There is a huge difference. Wishing for something and expecting it to happen are solar systems apart. When you believe in something in a way that lacks mental commitment, you are not expecting it to happen. An expectation on the other hand is a commitment. A promise to yourself to see it through to the end no matter what it takes. And this is what I was missing in my business. I was trying to convince myself that I was committed, that I was willing to go down with the ship if that’s what it took, and all the while I had one foot in a lifeboat.
An expectation is not something you can middle. It isn’t something you dip your toe into. It is a head first plunge into the waters of resolve.
A relevant example in my own life is the trip Rebecca and I are currently enjoying. We have always wanted to explore Hawaii. Rebecca studied volcanos in college, and the beach is my happy place. So Hawaii seemed like the perfect place for us to meet in the middle where we could both be happy.
Ten months ago when we decided to travel to Hawaii, we could have just talked about it and then done nothing. We certainly could have hoped that our growing business would just hit us in the face with the funds to make the trip a reality. Or we could do what makes sense and set the expectation that on October 10, 2017 we would fly out of Buffalo and head for O’ahu. We could block the dates out on the calendar and look at flights. Dining plans made it onto the calendar and I called to book reservations several months before we paid for anything. We bought books about Hawaii and printed out information on excursions we planned on enjoying together. A big picture of Waikiki beach was cut out and placed on our dream board so it would be in front of us every day. We expected to go to Hawaii. Plain and simple. And as I write this post, I am sitting on a balcony of the 21st floor of the Rainbow Tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village that overlooks Waikiki beach.
Is there anything special about what I did? Of course not. It is just a matter of expecting the future to be what you want it to be. If you can learn how to channel your thoughts to expect success and opportunity, you will be surprised how quickly they show up. I encourage you to start expecting your goals to become reality. if you are searching for a vehicle to make this happen in your life, visit the “Work with Patrick” section of my blog to learn more. If you are serious about changing your expectations of success in your life, I would be honored to work with you and help you build a powerful future filled with great results. Don’t wait for success to find you, expect to find it and then make it happen.
-Patrick Engasser
