The World of Expectations
One of the most interesting ideas in Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker is the idea that one’s income and one’s assets are controlled by an internal thermostat: if you feel uncomfortable with either success or failure, you will automatically increase or decrease your efforts in order to meet your expectations, or you will go so far as squandering money if it is more than your internal wealth thermostat will allow.
I thought about this in a couple of other contexts, each of which are huge parts of my life: academics and running. I know that there have been times where people have had classes where they just look at their situation, and they say to themselves, “Just give me a D for done, and I’ll be outta here!” In addition to the motto “D for done,” another one that I’m familiar with is “2.0 to go.” However, what would happen if a straight-A student was getting a 2.0 for the semester at the mid-term? He/She would probably be a lot more determined to do better and would hit the books until, if not getting back to a 4.0, at least has a solid academic performance.
This was reinforced today when I ran my speed workout. For the last six weeks, I’ve been building up my speed in my workouts to prepare for a 5K road race and a one-mile track time trial in April. Most of those workouts had been an unmitigated success, often exceeding my goals for that particular workout by several seconds. Then, I had what felt like a breakthrough on Saturday. While running a tempo run (a run right at the point that is the dividing line between an aerobic and anaerobic effort, which is roughly ten-mile pace) for three miles followed by three miles of easy running on the track, I ran the first three miles in 23:09, a per-mile pace that was actually faster than I wanted to run next month, which told me that I was in much better shape than I had thought, and my first 6 mile run in less than one hour (57:11) in nearly six years. When I got home, I looked at my pacing, and it said that my VDOT (oxygen capacity) was a 43 based on my tempo pace. This translates into a 5K of 22:41 and a mile of 6:41. So, because I don’t have the endurance to run a 5K at the same effort that I run a mile, I decided to try to hit that 22:41 in two weeks, and build my VDOT to a 44 (6:32) or a 45 (6:25) for the mile run two weeks later.
Today was my interval day, and for my interval runs, I do 800-meter repeats with a 200-meter walk recovery in between. I always like to do the last run at my goal pace and all of the other ones at the pace I’m at now. This meant that I would do the first four in 3:32 or less and the last one in 3:24 or less for the last one. When I ran the first one, I felt like I had to push hard at the end, but I finished in 3:30.03. So far, so good. I ran the next two in 3:31.02 and 3:29.80, so it felt like this would be another run where I easily exceeded expectations. However, for the fourth interval, I just missed the target, running in 3:32.54. I was disappointed, but this was barely a half-second over my goal time, so I decided to try to walk a little slower to get ready for the last run. However, about 300 meters in, I tried to pick up my pace, and it just wasn’t there. I tried again in the last lap, but with all of that effort, the best I could do was a 3:28.58, a full 4 1/2 seconds slower than my goal time.
I’m not sure if this means that a 44 is more realistic than a 45 (I’ll probably know for sure when I do my last two workouts before my road race on the 9th.), or if I was just having an off day. However, I was very disappointed by my effort. Then, when I went to look at my times for the week before, I ran a total of 48.65 seconds faster than I ran the five intervals the week before, or 9.73 seconds per 800 meters, and while I finished above my goal times for the last two runs, the total for all five was still three-hundredths of a second faster than my cumulative goal for all five. This is because I had must higher expectations for today. Then again, if it weren’t for those higher expectations, I would be underperforming when it really counts next month.
When have you noticed that you were performing better than you were in the past and found yourself disappointed, and what did you do about it?
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Tags: improvement, internal challenge, internal thermostat, running, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 1:18 am and is filed under Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 29th, 2011 at 2:22 am
Steve,
I think, for the most part, that we expect ourselves to become better each time we go out and attempt to achieve. We have not seen the daily improvement in ourselves because we ‘are there’. The ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ syndrome applies in ALL areas of life. When we think of how disappointed we want to be because we think we did badly, the facts of the matter should only serve to intensify our satisfaction that we haven’t done so bad. When I run into an area where I think I have stumbled, I look back at where I came from and gain comfort in knowing that everybody has off days and that tomorrow will be better for the effort I expended today.
Bruce W. Darby´s last [type] ..Direct Sales – How’s your Credibility
March 29th, 2011 at 5:56 am
It’s so true. I got the whole CD set of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker.
It is usually easier to say than to feel that one is up to par for the success. It is matter how to shift the momentum from seeing the flaw to the possible.
To me it is hard. Because I always seem myself with small networking person and not a good person for closing sell or making referral.
Exactly this mindset create more resistance for me to make new contact or get to know people
There are times where you know where your weak spot is and just don’t know what to do. To last to find out you just have to do it, and put yourself in that tough spot and feel the uneasy.
After all, it is not a matter how i feel about networking. It is matter whether that’s the right thing to do.
Vivian So´s last [type] ..Affiliate Marketing Revised
March 29th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Love how you have applied this prinicple about our creative ability to CREATE our own reality–it is a subtle nuance that many people don’t even see. Two things for you: first, would love for you to visit my website at creativelyfit.com. We help our clients get their right brain muscle in shape, the part of our mind that can grasp the subject of this blog entry and learn to harness more of our mental potential. Secondly, I see the subject of your doctoral studies. Love it. I feel like, at this point in history, we are supposed to “remember” and utilize ancient teachings to help us to move into the future in a more susatainable and compassionate way. What is the story behind you choosing this study. Nice to meet you!
March 29th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Hey Steve,
I’m a fan of Harv’s work too, definitely a worthwhile book! I love the inner thermostat analogy, which I agree with you can be applied to other areas than finances.
To answer your question I guess dropping expectations is my approach. Loving the process, aiming high and not being attached to the results… Will that make me a multi-millionaire? Who knows – but I’ll go for gold and enjoy it all the way.
All the best,
Jym
Jym @ MLM Lead Generator´s last [type] ..Better Blog SEO – The Long and Short of Long Tailed Keywords
March 30th, 2011 at 12:16 am
Thank you for your reply, Bruce! You are so right that we have good days and bad days. What amazes me so much is how that something that once would have easily been considered one of the former can become the latter so very, very quickly when our outlook changes. I think the key is to never beat yourself up when you have a bad one.
March 30th, 2011 at 12:22 am
Thank you for your reply, Vivian! I know that my biggest difficulty in network marketing is also closing, so I sympathize with your plight. If that is the case with you, just take baby steps. If you’re still at the stage where you are looking at your first close, make that your goal. If you’ve done that, make your next goal to either turn a profit or get to the next rank in your promotion plan. Then, continue to gradually raise it until you are at a point where you are happy with your results.
I’m glad that you enjoyed my stories from running. I tend to give somewhat regular updates with my running as a general update as well as give some lessons from my running.
March 30th, 2011 at 12:26 am
Thank you for your reply, Whitney! Your comment reminds me of something that I’ve read many times: a lot of what is important in life isn’t what happens, but how we respond to what happens.
I chose church history as part of a long and winding road. I felt a call to ministry as an undergraduate, but I thought it was as a chaplain. Once I realized that wasn’t it, I thought I was supposed to be a pastor in the private sector. Then, as I continued in seminary, I realized that the classroom was where I fit. I was torn between church history and biblical studies, but I ultimately chose the former because I really like the idea of seeing how things get started, and I also realized that biblical studies was an extremely narrow field that required a lot more languages, so I decided to study the former.
March 30th, 2011 at 12:29 am
Thank you for your reply, Jym! I think that there are times when we realize that we are shooting too high (because we don’t yet have the skills and think we do), and other times that we are shooting too low. I decided to see how my speed workouts go leading up to my next race on the 9th, and that will determine what my goals are for my next mile time trial. It’s looking like pushing for the faster time of the two targets might be the way I’m going.
March 30th, 2011 at 2:14 am
Steve the Owl's Blog » Blog Archive » One Day at a Time says:[...] Work with Steve « The World of Expectations [...]
April 6th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Steve,
You always give such practical and insightful illustrations for your points! You’ve hit the nail on the head, it is all about conditioning your mind for success. But always give yourself credit for any incremental achievements, for those are the ones that culminate into the greatest ones!
Thanks for a wonderfully inspiring post once again!
Vicki
Vicki Berry´s last [type] ..One Tool to Enhance Your Personal Brand and Relationships!
April 7th, 2011 at 12:42 am
Thank you for your reply, Vicki! I must admit that I was quite frustrated when I saw 3:28 and change on my stopwatch on my last run that day, but the instant that I saw my running times for the week before and added them up, that is when I reminded myself of this crucial tenet, and it’s when I got the idea to share this story to my friends here online.