I have a very sweet cat appropriately named Pudge. She’s a big girl as you can see by the picture. Pudge’s favorite toy is a six foot length of twine. She loves you to pull it around as she scampers around behind it trying to catch it. You have to keep it on the ground as she is limited to ground pursuit. Jumping for something isn’t her strength.

She doesn’t play with the piece of twine on her own, but Pudge will lay on that piece of twine for hours waiting for someone to come and start pulling it for her. And, sure enough, if you walk by and see her laying on that piece of string and looking up at you pleadingly, you can’t help but grab the end and start pulling that string around the room.

Nancy and I are able to walk by her once, maybe twice without touching the twine, but her expectations of that twine moving are so great that you find yourself compelled to pull it for her.

That piece of twine gets pulled because Pudge expects it to be pulled.

A definition of expectation is “anticipating with confidence of fulfillment.” A definition of confidence is “the state or quality of being certain.” So, expectation is “anticipating with certainty that you will have what you want.”

Having realistic expectations and working to achieve them is the most important part of any personal philosophy or belief system for attaining success.

When I say realistic, I’m not saying to keep your goals modest so they’re easily attained. But when you do make a goal, it has to be followed up with a plan on how you are going to achieve it. If you can set a goal that pushes the envelope a little but you can justify it by creating a plan showing how you will reach that goal, then you will have an expectation; a certainty that what you want you will get.

I’ve asked dealers about their expectations for their business and have received a wide variety of answers. Most people have wishes, not expectations. They may say they want to make $5000 a month from the business. But, when questioned deeper, you find out they don’t really expect to make $5000 a month, it’s just a hope, a wish.

Having a goal without a plan and without expectation of it really happening is why people don’t get what they want in life.

Some even go so far as to say they don’t really have any expectations. But, this is not possible if they desire something from their business. In fact, saying you have NO expectations is saying you expect to fail. If there is something you want in life, then you either expect to get it or expect not to get it. There is no neutral ground when it comes to something you desire. You can’t have NO expectations.

Your expectations are responsible for what you have in life. If you expect to fail at something, the odds are you will. If you expect to succeed, you most likely will. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

So, be like Pudge. Expect that string to move and as night follows day, it will move!