Skip to main content

Managing Expectations

I was watching a show on a streaming service about people with rare medical conditions and their desperation to find diagnoses and treatment. One episode featured a mother with a little girl around five or six years old. The mother was in distress because the little girl was diagnosed with a rare medical condition causing uncontrollable seizures. The child had hundreds of seizures daily halting any resemblance of normal life for someone her age. The only known treatment was to have a brain surgery resulting in the child most likely being unable to walk or talk for the rest of her life. The distressed mother was seeking alternative treatment. Every day the child went without surgery was a day closer to when it would ultimately lead to death or paralysis through seizure alone. Watching this show, my heart went out to the family and the child. In one of the interviews, the mother was asked about why she was hesitant on the surgery. The mother said, “How do you change your expectations of life?” The mother was struggling because all of the things she considered normal milestones for any person would most likely not be a milestone at all for her child if she had the surgery.

I latched on to this idea of expectations because we all have them. We have things we consider “normal.” If anything, living through the year 2020 demonstrated, normal is different than the expectations we have. Do you hold on to the hope and dream or move on to another dream? Can things be the same or different? Can different be better than what you originally had hoped?

In workforce development and other social programs, we hear and observe people’s expectations daily and have daily challenges managing them. Many people were raised with expectations of work that are no longer true. One example is the idea of getting a job out of high school and working with the same employer until you receive a gold watch at retirement. We now know this is not the case any longer. Another expectation is surrounding professional growth. The employer is responsible for my growth and development. This is another expectation no longer met by the current workforce. In the modern world we now understand we are responsible for our future, our growth, and our development.  In order to say current, we need to attend education and training, even when not sponsored by our employer. We are aware we will no longer work until it is time for the gold watch. In thinking about how the world has changed since Covid-19, there are occupations that may no longer exist. After years of study in college, a person may graduate to find that career is not an option any longer. There are probably other expectations about work out there. Are those expectations helping or hindering the success of individuals?

Daily life comes with expectations. How we shop, visit with family, vacation, eat, live, learn, etc. is an expectation that has been created by culture of our families and society. Now things are different. There are signs everywhere right now telling me the new procedure for having routine appointments, if a mask is needed, and what needs to be done ahead of time. Part of the change to the “new normal” has been adjusting what you expect from things like going to a restaurant or shopping in a store.  Most people have adapted based on necessity and not through the desire to start wearing masks and being socially distant from friends and family. There is acceptance of this Covid life.

For those too fighting for a dream that no longer exists, or a job that is no longer, the first step is acceptance or acknowledgement. From there the hard work can happen and the truth can be realized. If you are wondering what happened on the show with the little girl, I can report she received a new alternative treatment for her diagnosis at a New York hospital known for working with brain disorders. The little girl had surgery to implant a device to help control the seizures without having the drastic life altering brain surgery. Ultimately, only time will tell how successful this surgery will be and what expectations of normal life can be met. As for the world we live with expectations for life and work, sometimes we need a little alternative management also.

~Karen Cirincione

Email: kcirincione@gmail.com        

Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/karenjcirincione

Twitter: @kcirincione 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mastering the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Project

An engaging book club discussion about email, how we work, and also just how we as people manage our lives. The more we talked the more I started to realize that essentially project management is essentially a life skill everyone needs to master to be successful. If we simplify Project Management down to the easiest way of explain it and applying, we can define it as taking a big end goal and break it down to smaller goals, figuring out the tasks with each smaller goal, and then allocating lots of resources along the way. Ultimately at the core of project management is planning and organizing, but communication is really at the heart of it all. A project may be big, like building a bridge, creating and implementing software, or it can be as small as figuring out what to make for dinner. Along the way to said goal, every step needs to be clear and everyone needs to communicate about all the said steps along the way. Sounds easy, but apparently it is not so simple. One would think ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

A WIOA Fairy Tale

I thought it was time to have a little fun with WIOA and write a fairy tale. My last fairy tale was published in June of 2014 and was before WIOA legislation. To read the first workforce development fairy tale, check out the archives. Once upon a time in a far off land called Weeoha, lived a community of residents. Many of these residents had jobs and careers, but some found themselves in need of services and assistance to get jobs. Some were reliant on the government for assistance with basic needs because they could not find jobs. Three of these residents, Jack Butcher, John Baker, and Josie Candlemaker, found themselves not satisfied with their lack of opportunity and decided to go on a pilgrimage to find the legendary Cup of Career Success.   According to urban legend, whomever drank from this cup was promised eternal employment and self-sufficient wages as long as they desired. Jack, John, and Josie set out on foot to find the legendary cup. Their first stop was to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do you Birthday?

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...
Post a Comment
Read more