Has anyone ever told you that you have unrealistic expectations? I’ve been told that by several people. Some thought they were helping me, others were down right critical. Either way the comment is the same and I choose to ignore it. WHY? Because the average person over the age of 13 has very low expectations.
We’ve been told things like we’ll never do well at sports or athletics. We are told that we’re not college or university material, so why try? Peers tell us that the girl or guy we’re interested in is out or our league. We’re told to not take a risk or we’ll ‘loose the farm’. Don’t go for that challenging job that pays better. In fact, better if you don’t do anything that may “rock the boat”, produce a little fear and actually put some passion into your life.
Sure, it is easy and more comfortable, and you are less likely to be criticized if you take the low road– it doesn’t offend anyone and having high expectations and missing the mark hurts. But – I would rather aim high and miss, than aim low and hit any day! Your expectations play a big role in the success of you care here. I am going to illustrate two different people’s expectations, they are actually 2 real people and they both represent many others. I will of course not use their real names.
To start with I will say that they both have have expectation and want to get better. How do I know that? Because they both arrive consistently for their adjustments. What happens beyond showing up is the difference in what they believe.
Nellie (negative Nellie) – says, “I’m not getting any better.” Why? I respond, “because, it’s not going to get better.” In a simple statement Nellie reveals that she is not going to put a full effort into her corrective exercises, or consider other types of exercise, consider good changes to her diet, do anything different to reduce her stress and find more joy in life. She won’t do things to swing the balance of healing in her favor because her expectation is what? She is not going to get better… so why bother? If you aim low, you can’t get hurt, right? Wrong – some might even call her a “joy-sucker-outer”. Her low expectations for herself takes away from her life (and the lives of everyone around her) and the fruit she will receive is the same type as the seed she sows.
Shelley (on the other hand)– allows herself to believe and have high expectations. She is like clockwork with her adjustments – on time, every time. She does her corrective exercises, she engages with workout challenges so that she can improve her strength, agility, flexibility and endurance. She looks for ways to improve her diet and makes changes, and very importantly she has less stress – why? Because instead of worrying about the good things she should do, she just does them. Why does Shelley do these things? It’s because she aims high and knows that even if she isn’t perfect, she’ll be better off – she has high expectations.
So here is the GOOD NEWS: You can chose what type of patient you want to be here at New Life and what type of person you will be outside of these walls. It is your choice, but I can tell you that Shelley is much easier to help, gets much better results and is a blessing for us to serve. Don’t be a Negative Nellie – set your expectations high, expect a great life, expect to have great health, expect to have a great marriage, expect to have a tremendous family and great relationships and even better yet, expect that God is with you.
God Bless,
Dr. Brad and the New Life Team
