This week I want to share a little secret, I know why you got into a fight with… well, anyone.
I know exactly why you got into an argument, got upset or were dissatisfied with anyone in your life, be it wife, husband, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend, enemy or stranger.
Without knowing anything about the situation, I know exactly why your blood boiled or they lost their cool.
One simple word – EXPECTATIONS!
Simple enough, right?
We get upset, frustrated or annoyed when someone else does not meet our expectations.
Others get mad at us when we do not meet their expectations.
Have you ever had a situation where you did not realize that you did anything “wrong” but someone got mad at you? Of course you have, we all have.
This happens because the other person expects you to act or do as they would and you don’t.
This happened to me last night.
My brother-in-law was flying into to Dallas for a business trip, so my wife and I were going to pick him up at DFW airport, take him to dinner and then drop him off at his hotel.
We expected him to land at 6PM and we live close enough to the airport that he can text us when he lands and we can be at the airport by the time the plane taxis, he disembarks, collects his luggage and walks out front.
We got home from a friend’s house at 5:20PM, I had a few errands to run and I knew I had half-an-hour or so until he was going to land, shouldn’t be a problem.
I finished my errands and was returning to my house about 6:05PM, but had not heard my wife about her brother landing, so I called.
He had text and called her and she was upset that I was running late, and now I was confused, because I did not realize that I did anything wrong.
Why did this happen?
Because I tried to squeeze too much into a Sunday afternoon, maybe, but not really.
You see, it is all in the expectations and assumptions.
My wife expected the plane to land at 6PM, so she assumed I would be home, ready to leave for the airport at 6PM, I was not, so she was not happy with the timing of my errands.
I expected to be informed of when he landed and assumed he had not landed until otherwise notified.
In the end his plane landed early and he had no checked bag to pick up, go figure, so he had to wait for us to get there and, despite the wait, we had a great night out.
Not a big deal in this context, but this is a very simple example of a much bigger concept.
Think about the last argument, fight or disagreement you had with your family, business partner, employee or boss.
I guarantee you that you each had different expectations and assumptions surrounding your specific situation.
The best way to overcome this is better communication and to not get emotional about the situation.
Stay tuned as we continue to discuss the interesting world of business and spray foam insulation.
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