Expectations Matter

I'm sure we've all heard the story of someone "beating the odds" and doing something a doctor told them they'd never do again. 

When I hear these stories, my reaction is usually something along the lines of "good for them" or " that's awesome", and I'm sure most other people think the same. 

But I also have my opinions as to why this person was told they'd never do something again in the first place. 

Expectations matter when it comes to the level of satisfaction you have when accomplishing something. 

When a doctor tells someone "You'll never do ______ again", I think what they're really doing is setting the bar low. 

Imagine you were a collegiate level soccer player who had surgery on their knee and was told they'd never play soccer again. 

After months, or years, of PT combined with working up the courage to get back to playing, you return to playing in a recreational or adult league. 

You'd certainly feel a level of accomplishment and satisfaction in doing so, and likely blast it all over social media with a caption saying something like "proving those idiot doctors wrong". 

But what if that doctor had told you that you'd definitely return to playing collegiate soccer? Your sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with only returning to an adult league would not be nearly the same.

The same thing can be said when recovering from an injury. When we get hurt, we're always looking to get better as soon as we can. 

If we have the expectation of "this will be better in no time", whether that be an individual thought or coming from a health care provider, then we'll be pissed when our pain is only 50% better and not 100% better in a few days or weeks. 

However, when we expect our pain relief to be a gradual process over a few months (which is usually the case), then we'll have more satisfaction when our pain is improved just 50% after a few weeks. 

It's not easy to be this patient when you so badly want to accomplish something, trust me, I hear you. 

But if you have more realistic and accurate expectations heading into tackling a goal, you'll be more appreciative of your progress along the way!