Repost: Seth Godin on Expectations and Attitude

When things get a little better every day, we take the good news for granted. It takes almost no time at all for the improvement to turn into an expectation and for the expectation to be taken for granted.

But when things decay, we can't stop thinking about the loss, extrapolating the pattern all the way to doom, and then living with that doom, long before it arrives.

This is a bug in the system of our culture, but that doesn't mean we can't work to hack it. When we curate our media intake (and create our own) and when we decide what story to tell ourselves (instead of accepting the story of someone with different objectives than ours), we can rewire our inputs and the way we process them.

Same facts, different experience. On purpose.

Source: Seth Godin, "The Asymmetry of Decay," Seth's Blog, March 5, 2015, accessed April 9, 2015, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/03/the-asymmetry-of-decay.html.

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Someone who shows up with enthusiasm made a decision before she even encountered what was going on. The same thing is true for the guy who scowls with contempt before the customer opens his mouth.

It's a choice.

This choice is contagious.

This choice changes what will happen next.

This choice is at the heart of what it takes to be successful at making change or performing a service.

More than you imagine, we get what we expect.

Source: Seth Godin, "Enthusiasm and Contempt are Both Self-Fulfilling," Seth's Blog, April 9, 2015, accessed April 9, 2015, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/enthusiasm-and-contempt-are-both-self-fulfilling.html.