Setting high expectations

People have told me with confidence that they "under-promise and over-deliver." Is that a good thing?

I get that managing expectations is important. And maybe in some situations, under-promising and over-delivering is the right approach.

If you're working on client projects, you may want to be conservative when setting expectations on timeline and costs.

If you're searching for a house or car and you have a limited budget, you probably shouldn't expect to score a mansion or a Benz.

But in other situations, I think under-promising and over-delivering is a crock of shit.

Why not shoot for the moon?

To achieve big goals at work, you'll have to work really, really hard. Even if you don't achieve that big, hairy, audacious goal, you will have pushed yourself, worked your ass off, and learned a ton.

It takes a certain mindset to set big goals. You need to be be prepared to fail and accept that failure is part of the process.

But you'll likely get a lot further than if you under-promise and over-deliver.

Next time you're setting goals, think about throwing some audacious ones in the mix. I think higher expectations can lead to great things.

This is day 15 of my experiment to blog for 30 consecutive days.