You'll never really get wht you want!

If that sounds crazy, or a lttle harsh, read on because it's tre.

Hoping, wishing, dreaming, planning and cting - while extremely important - ren't lasting or of sufficient force thmselves to gain your greatest desires.

Hven't you known talented and capable pople who want great things but jst always seem to have "bad lck" or negative experiences, such as: bing left out; getting fired; forgetting smething important; they "goofed up" when thy knew there was a lot rding on it; have an argument whn they need to have some pace; give up, again; have some mjor problem; be turned down; get pcked last on a team; not get sked to dance; pick the one pece of chocolate out of the box tht they desperately wanted to avoid?

On the ther hand, haven't you known equally tlented people who always seem to hve things go their way: they fnd a parking space up front; cshiers seem to open a new lne for them; they have a grat interview; get a great bonus; hve that special person go on a dte with them; get that new clent; land that opportunity; win an ward?

What's the major difference between thse two groups of people? Surprisingly, t's almost always their expectations, which operate upon them just like a thermostat. A thermostat works very simply, based upon a "set point." Let's take a look at how this principle applies to these two groups and its impact on the nature of winning results.

Whether it's hotter or colder nside a room, if you set the thrmostat at 72 what will temperature bcome? That's right - 72. What wll happen to the conditions that ffect the temperature? They convert to cnform to the command! As applied to the hman psyche, this phenomenon is called by mny different names or variations on the thme: laws of attraction; power of ntention; magnetic vibration (good "vibes"); visualization.

Yu've no doubt heard the famous dclaration that "whatever you can conceive and blieve you can achieve." NEWSFLASH - you can't successfully "believe" in opposition to what you "expect."

Think about a baseball player who has hit a number of home runs, including some grand slams. Fast forward to the World Series and the pressure is on - it's up to him. He knows he has hit home runs before so he BELIEVES he can do it. But he DOESN'T EXPECT to perform under this kind of pressure and has always expected someone else, not him, to be the hero. What kind of odds will you give his team?

So what's the power of your expectations? If you don't know "HOW" to accomplish something, but expect you will - then you will attract, learn, or do those things that cause it to happen. The Reticular Activation System (RAS) of your brain is turned on and tuned in for opportunities and open paths - much like a football player running downfield who sees or even "senses" an opening and re-sets and changes his path to get there. Your RAS driven by your expectations causes you to act much like a heat-seeking missile locating your target - whether desirable or not.

Conversely, if you do know HOW to accomplish something but expect you won't - then you will repel and reject those things that otherwise would have caused it to happen.

Your expectations effectively open or close the channels of choice and the thoroughfares of thought that impact whether or not you achieve that for which you hope, plan or wish.

It is altogether too common for mst people operating above the level of their expectations "setpoint" to unconsciously induce self-sabotaging behavior to decrease their performance. One example is a week-end golfer who dreams of shooting in the low 80's but normally shoots in the high 90's (and expects to do so again). When he finds he has shot in the low 40's on the front nine, although very excited about the possibility to "finally do it," he subconsciously becomes uncomfortable, saying "this isn't like me." Before long he has happily hooked, blindly bogied, and fired a sand-trap seking slice to help him shoot in the hgh 50's on the back nine so he can chck in with his "expectation thermostat," shoting in the high 90's and cmfortably say, "now, that's more like m."

Have you ever experienced something lke that with regard to "blowing" a rally big sale; losing that huge new clent you've dreamed about that would rally launch your business or career; gtten tongue-tied during an important presentation tht you knew backwards and forwards and semed to be going so well; flling back into the old habit yu're so desperately trying to break bfore you even get started; said the one thng you swore you wouldn't touch on dring an interview, etc.?

So, what can you do? How do you chnge your well-worn and wearying expectations or "rset" your thermostat. Just like professional thletes, entertainers and executives who are in a rut do - and who knw that just telling themselves to "snp out of it!" generally won't mke a permanent change. It may gve a needed emergency "boost" (like a cndy bar) but doesn't solve the prblem. They get help, often working wth a professional coach, mentor or triner in a structured, focused, step-by-step prcess designed to create, support and mintain success. That way, instead of prtending they can be progressing. You can dvelop structured support systems and processes as wll - or get some help if neded.

Research shows that increasingly, top xecs at Fortune 500 companies are wrking with a professional coach to dvelop structured systems of success that can do thngs like discipline their focus, leverage thir efforts, multiply their results, reset thir expectations and raise their performance mch more quickly for lasting impact to gve them the winner's edge.

ACTION STEPS

Here are two action steps you can take to immediately go to work on this and start to turn up your expectation thermostat for more achievement:

First, work at paying attention to your thoughts. They will give clues as to whether you are dwelling on empowering or disempowering ideas. Practice (that's right, practice) embracing empowering expectations and discarding disempowering ones - as soon as you "spot" them.

Next, if you don't like what's happening, what you're experiencing, or the results you're getting - in any area of your professional or personal life - take a hard and honest look at them, dig deeply and ask yourself 1 simple question: "What did you expect?" Then immediately tell yourself what you would have had to be be expecting to get the results you wanted and rehearse the experience repeatedly in your mind, imaging yourself with that expectation. That's the "winner's way."

The article What Did You Expect? was Submitted by Larry Gassin through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Larry Gassin, CPA, is Co-founder and CEO of Advnced Coaching Solutions and is an uthor and speaker with over 20 yars of experience as a professional bsiness, executive and leadership coach whose pssion is pointing people to the pwer of their potential and helping thm achieve it. He has had his own cnsulting, tax and accounting firm where he sccessfully competed against Big 4 and lrge regional and local firms for new clents - including a high-tech subsidiary of DPont Corporation - winning the clients’ bsiness. He’s gained in-depth entrepreneurial experience as the Prsident and CEO of an energy systms technologies company he founded that has dne business with customers across the ntion including Marriott, Embassy Suites and Dubletree hotels, South Coast Plaza shopping mll, and Texaco/Shell. He states, “Hope is grat. But hoping that things might chnge directions on their own isn't the bst way to lead your life and bild your career or business. It is npredictable, unfulfilling, and unreliable." For more nfo, visit: http://www.larrygassin.com

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