Managing Standards and Expectations
Throughout your lifetime, you’ll be met with several instances of tasks or events which will require you to set, employ and manage both standards and expectations. Whether it be organising your gran’s 70th birthday party, the standard to be a respectful, demure…a classy affair, and the expectation as a laid back, enjoyable affair without any outrageous behaviour. Then to the other end of the spectrum… organising your best friend’s stag/hen party… standards…eeeeeh….standa- there’s none, don’t know why i’m pretending. Expectation, let’s face it, is pretty simple in that it’s generally to humiliate and embarrass (and intoxicate) the stag/hen as much as humanly possible.
My point is here, that specific environments and goals require SPECIFIC standards and expectations.
Let’s relate this to fitness and lifestyle. If your “STANDARD” is to walk into the gym, straight to the treadmill for a 30 minute supported incline walk, followed by 15 minutes on the cross trainer then 10 minutes on a recline cycle, and your “EXPECTATION” is to be a strong, ripped, muscular god/goddess… then maybe its time to realise that your expectation is unrealistic and your standard is too low.
Sometimes it’s not nice to be told you’re not working hard enough when you’ve convinced yourself for so long that you’re working as hard as you can. It’s as this point however, that you need to ask yourself, “am i really working to the standard i need to be to reach my goals?”.
There HAS TO BE a correlation between your standards and expectations, otherwise i promise you, you’ll get nowhere. The expectation that because you see a personal trainer, you’ll automatically reach your goals, while your standard of working out is to quit any time things get tough… well I’ve got news for you, it’s probably time to re-evaluate spending your hard earned on a trainer.
I’ve personally worked with people from both ends of the standards spectrum and from experience, i find that those who set expectation BASED on their standard are not only more realistic, but also more successful in the pursuit of their goals.
Nobody says that your initial standards have to be your only standards, just as your expectations can change as your effort and commitment levels become more focused on your ever changing goals.
So, here’s my guide to being successful
Realistically evaluate your effort levels when you’re training (along with the effort put into managing your diet)
Instantly work a lot harder than that.
People are their own worst enemy and become discouraged or give up because they haven’t reached their (unrealistic) goal, settling for the fact it’s never going to happen , instead of asking “why isn’t it happening?”. But look at the most motivated people in the gym. The ones sweating, pushing themselves, driving to their goal and leaving it all on the floor (sometimes literally when you have to mop up sweat…) then going home to manage their diet and lifestyle, all in aide of reaching their goal, the look they want, the feeling they want.
So the next time you step into the gym/a session with the image in your head that you want, either put the time and effort in, or change the image.
Set Expectation BASED on Standards, and set Standards BASED on Expectations and you’ll get to where you want to be a whole lot quicker than you think.
Keep Working, Keep Motivated, Keep Moving
