Lowering Expectations

Lowering Expectations

Someone comes to you and tells you what they are looking to accomplish. They are very specific and have a time line in which this goal needs to be achieved. After working with them you come to find out that their goals may be achievable but they will be very difficult to attain. What do you do?

In this society today we have this notion that if YOU feel as though YOU cannot achieve it we have to reduce our standards to make US feel better. Look at our school system. For many years WE were held to a certain standard for our academics. WE knew that if WE did not achieve that standard there would be consequences so we tried and in most cases to achieve those standards. WE would consider our teachers and parents evil and bad for holding us to a high standard of achievement. However, at the end of the day, were we not better people and better citizens for it?

Look at those that did not grow up with discipline and where they are today. A friend said to me that if WE don’t train them when THEY are young he would have to when they were older. Imagine if our teachers gave us a test and then after the test said that she felt really sorry for us and that she was going to just give us all A’s. How much would we have learned? We would have learned NOTHING!

Yes, you can feel sorry for a person or group of people, but lowering the standards for them in a challenging event does not make them better people, it just makes YOU(US) feel better and keeps them right where they were originally. Tough love is tough, but just remember, many of them put themselves in the position they are in today. Let them work to get out if it. In the end, they will be better people for it.