Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Are You Expecting Enough of Yourself?
Here's a favorite quote from Sam Walton:

"High expectations are the key to everything"

I like this saying, but I DON'T like the way that some people would take it. A lot of people look at this saying and read it as that by expecting a lot of the trappings of success the universe will reward us with them because... because... I guess because we EXPECT it of THE UNIVERSE.

I don't think that expecting the universe to change to fit his expectations, though (ala "The Secret"), is what old Sam was talking about. Sam Walton wasn't a man who sat around and waited for the universe to change to fit his desires.

Sam was a doer -- in a big way. Sam Walton took action to change his world. If you had told him that all you needed to do was to hold high expectations and then wait for them to happen, I think he would have laughed in your face.

I think Sam Walton's philosophy was more along these lines: "High expectations OF YOURSELF is the key to everything."

What really stops is isn't that we don't have big enough dreams of what we'd like the world to give us. It's that we don't trust enough that we are capable of taking action that can bring us closer to those dreams becoming reality.

We look for the magic wand that will bring us untold wealth without any effort on our part. I don't think we do that because we're lazy. I think we do that because, deep down, we feel that if we have to play any role in making our dreams come true, we'll mess it up. So we look for something that doesn't require any involvement on our part.

That wasn't Sam's philosophy, though. He expected that he could make a difference in what he saw around him. Did he have some magic wand that made everything happen for him without any effort on his part? No, he worked hard to build his WalMart empire.

Did he make the right choice in every decision he made? No, I'm sure he made plenty of blunders. But he learned from them and kept going. He took further actions to negate the blunders and keep his business on an upward trajectory.

He grew up in poverty during the Great Depression. But he took continued action in the firm belief that he could change his situation. And he did -- big time!

Don't wait for some magic wand to appear in your life. Take action. Believe that you can make a difference. You might be surprised to find out that you can.
Jeff

Labels: inspirational quotes