Managing Expectations

is the proper thing to do. Make sure you can deliver what you promised to do. Don't over extend yourself, go the second mile or make yourself too available or willing. You might get taken advantage for, and that's really unacceptable. So play safe.

Get specifications, requirements so you can count your cost. Oh, and add in allowances for depreciation, inflation, devaluation and rising oil prises. Then recheck your calculations twice over so that you make sure you know exactly what you're getting yourself into. Because you know, managing expectations also has got to do with making sure you get what you ordered.

Leave no room for chance, faith or God because those elements are just too unpredictable. You can't quantify or measure them, so it's impossible to factor their effects into your picture-perfect plans. It's therefore best to discount them entirely.

Ignore instinct. That's usually easy, 'cos we've all been taught since childhood that it doesn't exist.
Don't trust. Don't trust others, don't trust yourself to rise above yourself, don't trust yourself to succeed in the near-impossible, don't trust yourself to fail and still come out standing.

When ever I hear someone talk about managing expectations, I wonder which is worse. Not getting what you expected, or getting exactly what you did.