While you’re in the thick of your work, set your sights high. The goals you set for yourself often serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy; you’re unlikely to outperform your own expectations. So, aim high to motivate yourself to stretch your abilities and achieve your full potential.
After you’ve completed the work, it’s crucial to shift your mindset. Let go of those lofty expectations you set earlier. Holding onto them can taint an otherwise successful outcome. If you keep telling yourself it wasn’t good enough, you’ll rob yourself of the satisfaction and happiness you deserve. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not just about meeting or exceeding those high expectations, it’s also about the effort and dedication you’ve put into the task.
To sum it up, while expectations are great for driving you to excel, they can be detrimental when used as the sole yardstick for assessing your performance. Once the work is done, give yourself permission to feel good about it. You’ve put in the hard work, done your best, and that’s a win in itself.