There is a slogan from Dr. Low of Recovery International that we learn as part of out cognitive behavior training (CBT) that states, “Lower your expectations and your performance will rise.”
The basic idea behind this slogan is that if you set lower goals for yourself or lower what you expect to receive or achieve you will not only achieve those goals and receive what you expect but that your overall performance with be better.
I don’t know how many times I have expected some outcome and it didn’t materialize leading to disappointment and discouragement. It also led to ‘feelings of inadequacy’ or failure. The times I set more realistic goals or lowered my expectations, not only did I get better results, but my self-esteem was raised and the rest of my day went better.
I don’t know why I am ‘plagued’ with this problem or why I have a low self-esteem but remembering to practice this principal helps me on a daily basis. I have not achieved perfection – in fact I still need to try to practice this on a daily basis and still fall prey to this character defect…