Expectations and Outcomes

We get what we expect. I believe this to be true but wasn’t aware of the subtle ways it operated in my life. A recent experience reminded me about the consequences of certain expectations.

I’d just finished teaching a 4 day class with 2 colleagues in Wisconsin. The group we taught shall remain nameless but it was a tough crowd and we were all glad to be heading home Thursday evening.

Although on different airlines, my colleague Beth and I shared a cab to the airport. The taxi driver reported many flight delays because of bad weather on the east coast. He checked our flight times on his phone. Beth’s flight was delayed a couple hours, he told us. It appeared that my flight was on time.

Because I’d printed out my boarding pass at the hotel, I went straight through security. As soon as I got through security, I saw a sign at a gate that said Denver. I sat down and made some phone calls. I overheard a guy on the phone next to me saying the Denver plane was delayed an hour.

I didn’t check the monitor after I overheard the guy on the phone. I just sat at the gate, catching up on calls.

An hour after my flight’s scheduled departure, I did check a monitor for my flight’s departure time. My flight wasn’t listed. At the gate where I’d been sitting, a Minnesota flight was now shown.

When I called United, they said my flight had left on time.

How could that have happened? I never heard the flight called. Clearly I’d been at the wrong gate and misinterpreted what I overheard the guy on the phone say.

I went back to the ticket counter. The only flight to Denver that evening was the Frontier flight my colleague Beth was on. I walked over to the United counter where a lone agent seemed to be closing up for the day and told him my saga. I can’t imagine how this happened, I kept saying.

He took my boarding pass, looked me up on the computer and then handed me a piece of paper. “I got you on the Frontier flight,” he said. “I’m sorry but you’ll have to wait in the Frontier line because I can’t print your boarding pass.” No change fee, no additional fare, and I would get home that night.

It’s still amazing to me that this happened. Yet my expectation that there would be a delay had me looking for evidence of that. Instead of my usual diligence when I travel, I made a stupid mistake.

Where else in my life, I wondered, do I allow expectations to limit me? What would happen if I raised my expectations in all areas of my life? Those are the questions I’m contemplating these days.

How do you see your expectations impacting the results you’re getting in your life?