Your Brain at Work by David Rock

Author:David Rock [Rock, David]
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-05-02T23:56:18.613208+00:00

CREATING THE RIGHT EXPECTATIONS

Whether your goal is to be eternally happy or just to improve your performance at work, clearly it’s going to be useful to manage expectations well, to create the right level of dopamine. To be clear, I am not an advocate of consuming L-dopa, cocaine, or any other substance that induces a greater dopamine level. The best way to manage your expectations (without any side effects) is to start to pay attention to them, which means activating your director. Managing your expectations is also an opportunity for your director to be more proactive, setting the scene for good performance rather than just sorting out problems when things go wrong.

Unmet expectations are one of the important experiences to avoid, as these generate the stronger threat response. “With any brain function, the important thing is firstly to minimize threat,” explains Evian Gordon. “Only once threat has been minimized can you focus on increasing possible rewards.” Great leaders carefully manage expectations to avoid not meeting them. When Barack Obama was sworn in as the new U.S. president in 2009, he took care to ensure that people reduced their expectations both of him and the years ahead.

Consciously altering what you expect can have a surprising impact. Imagine you are trying to get an upgrade for a long international flight. If you keep your expectations low, you will either be okay if you don’t get the reward, or thrilled if you do. Whereas if you allow yourself to get excited about the possible upgrade, you will either have a terrible flight if you don’t get it, or be only quietly happy, though not thrilled, if you do get it. When you step back and look at all the possible outcomes this way, it makes sense to minimize one’s expectations of positive rewards in most situations. Keeping an even keel about potential wins pays off.

As well as making sure you keep your expectations low, another way to boost your mood is to pay additional attention to positive expectations you know will be met for sure. A colleague recently said, “I like to use the fact that I have a holiday coming up, even if it’s months away, to help me be positive. If I focus on this, though it’s not logical, I have learned this helps keep the doldrums away.” Choosing to focus on things always getting a little bit better, even with evidence at times to the contrary, helps you maintain a good level of dopamine.

Great athletes know how to manage their expectations. They don’t get overexcited about possibly winning, as this ruins their concentration. And if they are worried about losing, they try not to expect that, either. Managing your expectations in any way requires, as with labeling and reappraisal, a strong director. When you can stop and notice your own mental state, you have the capacity to make choices about different ways of thinking. Great athletes observe the flow of their attention and make subtle changes to where their attention goes.

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