Managing Expectations

For the nth time, I have the nth person sitting me down to talk about managing expectations. That bad huh? 80% of the time, it's my bosses speaking to me about this problem. The rest are my friends. They said that I set too high an expectation on myself and I don't have to do that. Perfectionists live a miserable life. I swear I did not!!! I go easy on myself most of the times....oh ok, sometimes. I did not ask to be perfect. All I did was to set the expectation a little high so that if I don't hit, at least I won't be at the bottom. I do not see anything wrong with that.

My friend told me yesterday that I didn't slow down to smell the roses and is giving myself unnecessary pressure. Alright, I agree with that...but I didn't see any roses along the way so why should I stop? He then said that it's because I moved too fast that I couldn't see the roses and misses out all the good things in life. He told me to start enjoying life and not to be so hard on myself. Well, I AM enjoying life and I didn't think I was hard on myself. I was merely pushing myself to TRY and exceed my own expectations. I wasn't enforcing my expectations on people around me so it's probably ok. Moreover, I'm thinking of starting my own business in 3-5 yrs time....shouldn't I work a little harder to achieve that? I had to make sure that what I achieve now is in line with my business plan.  Friends had been encouraging me to start my own business.  I didn't agree initially because I didn't have the guts to do so.  Moreover such decisions need proper planning...you just don't just start a business without anything concrete. If you do, you will be seeing money pouring down the drain.

I don't want to join the ranks of the super rich and it was never my intention to earn big bucks. I just want a comfortable life for my family. I don't think that is too high an expectation! One thing my friend asked really tickled me. He said that since I'm always implementing structures in my work environment (I created dummy guides and flowcharts for my handover ;p), will I do that at home? Duh!! Of course not, why should there be flowcharts at home? I created an organization chart for my family once but that was just for fun. Not to be taken seriously :)