Unleashing Potential: The Art of Surpassing Expectations

Do you ever feel like you've settled for less than what you truly deserve, whether it's in your personal life, your career, or your fitness goals? We're here to tell you that you can shatter your own expectations and achieve things you never thought possible. In our next podcast episode, we crack open this concept, using personal anecdotes and experiences to illustrate how exceeding self-imposed limits can lead to unimagined success and satisfaction. We'll share tales of luxury vacations on a budget, or hitting fitness goals we never foresaw, all achieved through consistency, dedication, and a little self-love.

But what about those naysayers who question your ambitions, or the societal norms that box you in? We tackle these issues head-on, discussing how tuning into our inner desires can lead to extraordinary outcomes, despite the resistance. We'll also delve into the power of personal growth and its wider impact on the world around you. Whether it's a small improvement in your daily routine or massive shifts in your life, exceeding expectations can foster positivity, resilience, and happiness. So join us on this journey of self-discovery and transformation, and let's start surpassing our own expectations together!

Hypnotherapy coaching sessions can help if you are struggling with anxiety.  Please email us at englishsisters@gmail.com if you would like help with an issue, mentioning this episode of our podcast for a special discounted rate. We work with clients worldwide over Zoom or Skype. Buy our Book Stress Free in Three Minutes available on Amazon and Kindle, to help support our work. Thank you!

Please follow us and make this podcast a healthy habit for you, your family and friends to listen to weekly by sharing this with as many people as you can! Thank you!
Love and smiles from The English Sisters.

As always we love to here from you please email us with; Get Real with The English Sisters as the subject, at englishsisters@gmail.com

Watch the show on our YouTube  Channel
Follow us on Social Media
Share this podcast with your friends.

Chapters

• 0:00 Exceeding Expectations and Personal Achievements
• 14:15 Going Beyond Expectations and Overcoming Opposition
• 20:00 The Power of Exceeding Expectations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

High performance, performing beyond your expectations. Where would that take you? Wow, limitless possibilities, yes, exciting possibilities for the months to come. The months to come? Yes, right, so let's get cracking. That's what we're gonna be talking about in this week's episode. Or get real with the English sisters. Well, I mean, it's always lovely when something goes beyond your Expectations. Like you go to a hotel and you have expectations for it and you think, yeah, it's gonna be lovely, and then it goes beyond your expectations and it's wow when it's like, oh my gosh, this is more than what you expected. That's a great feeling. I have enjoyed have you a few times.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Come on this summer, when we went to to talk about beyond my expectations. It was a cheap holiday, amazing, that was amazing. Come on, that was one of those really great holiday deals that was in this beautiful Hotel. I mean, it was supposed to be a nice hotel, it was a four-star hotel, but it really was five star, wasn't it? Cheap deal, cheap deal yeah, that was beautiful. The weather was beautiful as well, because it was September yet, yeah, it was really hot. Yeah, so that was beyond our expectation. But then you also got the beach part the beach we call that, you know all the, the beds, the umbrella, you know what, the sun lounges and everything. We're all included. So you would just go it down to the beach and say, oh, I belong to that hotel, that was nice. And then they would open the door and then take you down, come on. That was beyond my expectations and mine too. And, yeah, a great time, best holiday ever.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Yes, so sometimes things can go beyond your expectations, or you? This podcast, we're gonna be more talking about personal, personal stuff, like on on holiday mode. Yeah, I have. Yeah, but this is not. It could be. I just thought of it. You know when things go beyond how wonderful I mean, we did tell them but how wonderful the hotel management and the staff will feel when they know that they've met their customers Expectations and even more. So they were going to feel amazing, aren't they? Well, yeah, and what are you trying to say? I mean, yes, yes, they are going to feel amazing. So they will have gone beyond. They won't have gone beyond their own expectations. I don't know if they're their own. I don't know if they expect to do that. I don't know if they expect to do that, because for them it's probably become part of life and they probably feel as if it's quite normal. I don't know, but for us it was definitely beyond my expectations to get that kind of service, that kind of luxury at that bargain price. But anyway, what we can take from this is that sometimes we can even surprise ourselves and go beyond our own expectations. I personally have surprised myself, because I started weight training Really, yeah, a couple of years ago, and I have gone beyond my expectations because, I mean, it's worked out amazingly.

Speaker 1: 3:27

First of all, I really enjoy it, which I thought I would, but not as much. Did you think you would actually enjoy it? I did no, at first I remember saying so stressful. I have to follow all those things it says on that paper. I know it was really fun. No, you hated it at first. I forgot about it. You can't forget the struggle, the initial struggle. I did forget the struggle. Yeah, you've just gone to the good part.

Speaker 1: 3:46

At the beginning it's this you were telling me. I remember you saying God, it's such a pain, there's so many things. You have to keep on stopping and then going and reading that thing and writing them down. Yeah, all those things you had to do. I mean you know what they're called, those for the weight? No, those things, 30, yeah, all those, because I don't do it, but you did and you know what it is. I'm so surprised by myself how I've forgotten how difficult it was at first. Yeah, I remembered it.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Houston Moan, I mean, used to say this is really important to do strength training, and I was thinking there was especially grain training. Because, just to write it all down, how many sets? For me, that's it. Yeah, sets and numbers, the sets of three, of 12 or eight. That was really complicated. It was complicated. I didn't know what the exercises were called. No, so like. And then the lift. Don't look at me because you know I don't do them, but you bought everything. You had your whole house in the hobby area. It was all dedicated to the gym. So you should know, you know, and it still is. And now, but now I just go down there and I think, oh, three sets of this, sometimes every now, and then I forget what an exercise is. I haven't done it for a while. Most of all, I'm on maintenance now, which is amazing, so I don't have to do it.

Speaker 1: 5:11

You've gone beyond your expectations of learning how to acquire that new skill. It's become a complete conscious competence. Yeah, you became very confident and your body has grown stronger because of that. It's grown a lot stronger, and who would have thought you didn't think it did you? Well, I thought it would be harder to grow muscle, right, and you managed to do it. But obviously I was very consistent, four times a week or whatever, for a long time.

Speaker 1: 5:34

And, like what you said, it was harder first, which I couldn't remember. Yeah, because there was also a fun part of it, knowing that I was doing something for myself. But it was difficult, and there's times when I was very tired and I still did it, and I used to say to myself you'll always feel better afterwards, violetta, so even if you don't feel like doing it now, afterwards you will feel better, right, so that was like your mantra, yeah, and so you always feel better after. So now I have got to that stage where I still sometimes, if I feel a bit tired, I don't feel like doing it, but yes, and my diet has changed. I've eaten more protein, I feel stronger, yeah, wow, yeah. So there you go. That was, that was. So. That's gone beyond my expectations, which was great.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Yeah, as far as you, you know physical activities, you've certainly gone beyond in many aspects. Yeah, I think I'll be able to build this kind of you can see us on YouTube, you think. You know, yeah, it's not that much, but it's not bad, but it's good for me. Yeah, it's gone beyond my exactly. Everyone has to think about their own body and their own what, what they're capable of. You know, you can't expect to be like nothing extreme. There's no six pack, there's nothing. You see us on YouTube. There's just that there's a little bit of muscle on the arm, a little bit of which I show off about very proudly. But yeah, yeah, I haven't got that actually. No, and I've noticed that my like, my back has improved, my posture has improved. Yeah, I really have to get to that.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Sometimes I have neckache and then I go and do some weightlifting and I feel better afterwards. Really, I thought you said it hurt your neck once. No, when I used to do it, when I didn't do it properly. You have to be careful, you have to have good form, you have to do it calmly, you know, with supervision, obviously, yeah, first right, unless you're doing at home like just a few weights. But always, you know, follow a tutorial, something, definitely so much stuff you can get. Yeah, follow now.

Speaker 1: 7:34

We can really surprise ourselves, can't we? You know, as, as human beings, what it is is I think it's also the part of going beyond your expectations is consistency. Yeah, like you know, following a plan, focusing on that and just doing it step by step, step by step, yes, and looking back and thinking, yes, I did that. And being proud and going ahead, not forgetting what you did yesterday, but the same time looking like, looking towards tomorrow and looking forward to tomorrow. Looking forward, yeah, even if you don't enjoy it, I guess, because sometimes you have to look forward. If you don't look forward to the bigger picture your expert, you know you can feel demoralized and you feel, oh no. So the trick is to see the big picture, see yourself, in this case, as being healthy, strong. In this case, if you're, if you're looking forward, like if you want to improve your mental focus and you maybe you want to study something new or do something new, then just step by step and then look at the bigger picture. Right, yeah, definitely. No, I'm thinking yeah, you know, that's it is all about being consistent and and taking those daily small steps. Yeah, because, no matter what it is, really, you want to be healthier. You want to eat better, drink more water. It starts with one glass it and then build it up.

Speaker 1: 9:02

I mean, look at this podcast, it's gone beyond our expectations. We didn't expect to do something. We knew it. We wanted it to be a long-term thing, but we didn't think that so many people all around the world no listening, did we not really? No, no, it has gone beyond. We didn't think it would be.

Speaker 1: 9:19

At the start, when we first didn't know anything about podcasting, we could never imagine it would be on apple podcast. No, we could. Worldwide. Yeah, yeah, that's true. So it's all these things that have gone beyond our expectations where we had a big dream for it but we couldn't really quite pinpoint.

Speaker 1: 9:37

And it was such a struggle at the beginning, difficult to get there. You have to, and it was so easy to let go and just say no, that way, no, that's far too hard. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, sometimes things that seem so complex, well, at first you have to break them down. When we first had to do it, I just said no way. But there's no, no, where we're gonna go down. My daughter told me we had to do a podcast. I said there's no way we're gonna do a podcast. I've got zero intention. Yeah, I do not understand that kind of technology. I don't know how to get it on apple podcast or anywhere. We don't know how to do that. That's the first reaction.

Speaker 1: 10:18

And then the next day there's something clicks in the brain and it starts working. How can we make that happen and how do you make it click in the brain? So what do you think is a certain brain? The thing is that you have to, like someone has to say something to you, or you have to have read something where there might be a flicker in your brain saying maybe I could do that, maybe that would be a good thing for me to do, and then you get all the negativity Now, now, now, it's too difficult, you can't do that. Blah, blah, blah. And then you have to kind of wipe that all away with, like as if it's almost like as if there's rain on a windscreen wiper on your car and it would just wipe it all away.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And then, step by step, little things to maybe start looking. What kind of equipment would I need? Yeah, just browsing. Make it really casual. How do I have to do this? Yeah, casual, what would be? Oh, I've got an iPhone. I can record. I've got this. I can just maybe need to get this equipment. It's not that expensive, or it is expensive, or maybe I can save up for it. Whatever you have to do, it was these small little steps.

Speaker 1: 11:30

You think so Once the flicker, as you called it, once the beyond expectation, something you would never imagine yourself doing Say, no way, I'm not doing that. You know I can't do that. But you kind of you kind of somebody tell, or you get that idea, because what I think, I think what happens, is that if you get the idea, it's because you can do it. Otherwise the idea wouldn't go in your mind. It's like somebody once said to me if you think you can be on television, for example, because I always said, no, I think I can be on television, like broadcasting, they said, if you think you can do it, it's because there's a part of you that knows you can do it. You would be comfortable with it. Otherwise you would say no way, no way would I be able to do that, for example, because it's overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 12:20

Then after is when you go back on yourself and think, oh God, why on earth did I say that? That sounds so scary. You know, like when you think you're in your right mind, you go back and say, oh, no way, why did I say I think I could be on TV doing a program? That's wait, that sounds so hard. But maybe that is your right mind. That's what I mean.

Speaker 1: 12:41

I think this happens to a lot of people when they think I wanna start my business or I could be up on the theater stage or I could be, maybe I could be an actor or I could be doing that. But then after you think, oh no, what was I thinking of? How embarrassing, why did I even say that to my friend? And you freak out a little bit about it. I think, if you've said it, there's something there. It's that flicker that you said. I think you have to elaborate on those flickers.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Yeah, it could even be something I don't know why this has just come to mind but something so banal as seeing someone you admire wearing a certain thing and thinking I could wear that, and then, oh no, that's not me, I couldn't, I don't, I don't know. No, I don't wear those things. I'm getting scared. Yeah, it's too short or too long or too bright, too shiny. I can't do that. And yes, if it's come to mind. You can, you can be that person, you can change it and you can be beyond what you thought you could be. Yeah, and it's not easy. And sometimes, if you do go for that bright color and you might think, oh, this is, I feel, strange at first, but oh, maybe I could get used to this. Yeah, you start wearing it. The more you wear it, then the more people become used to you wearing those kind of different outfits, and the more they, the more it becomes kind of the new normal for you.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Yeah, and when you are going about going beyond your expectations, there's probably a lot of change involved. And in that change, even in small changes, you may get opposition because your friends and your family, they don't like change, they don't want you to change, they want you to stay the same. Yeah, yeah, change is always scary. It's scary for you, it's scary for them. They don't want you to change and go somewhere else or start doing something else. They know who you are and they categorized you into that little thing. You are a doctor, you are a policeman, you are this, you are that.

Speaker 1: 14:56

And if you suddenly say, no, well, I've had a flicker, now what are you talking about You're not. Don't listen to those English sisters. This flicker rubbish. But if you've had a flicker, you obviously be careful. You keep your job, but you can still nourish the flicker at the same time. You can nourish that seed, can't you? You can cultivate it. Spare time, whatever. You can follow up on it.

Speaker 1: 15:24

You've always wanted to travel more. There's a reason why you always want to travel more. There's a part of you that wants that. Don't ignore it. I say Listen to it. There could be something very extraordinary in that next journey you take. Yeah, and maybe the people around you don't want you to take that journey because it's taking funds away from themselves, something they want to do, oh, financially, yeah, yeah, time away from themselves, time a lot. They might want to hang out with you in that time and they think, oh no, they're going off for a period of time and I wanted to do something with them then Because it was on their agenda really, so it was on their schedule again.

Speaker 1: 16:04

That is so true and I think when you do go beyond your expectations, you will surprise yourself and then you can be pretty proud of that. I think it does build a lot of confidence, like what you were saying in the way Self-esteem grows exponentially when you go beyond your expectations. Your expectations can start small and then you can build them up slowly. You know any marathon runner. Anyone will say, wow, how did they manage to do that? How? Consistency, consistency, daily, doing it day by day and, like what you said, hard work, because I forgot about that. A lot of hard work, lots of time. It's like slog. I think it's a bit like when you give birth. I mean, you forget about how hard it is after you've done it because you've got your baby. Some people don't, unfortunately. If you've been traumatised, that's a different case, but normally we get our endowment.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Sure, things get going, like what happened to me with the bodybuilding and I completely, I had it on and generally forgotten about all that. Yes, yes, yes, you can tend to just it becomes a general skill that you have acquired. Now I just look at the workout sheet and I just think it's not, it's just normal for me. You give that to me. It looks like Chinese, yes, and that's how I felt at first. I would think what the hell? That looks like a new language, yes, let alone managing to do whatever they are. You know the push-ups and all of that stuff. So, yeah, yeah, the bench press You've got to be very proud of yourself.

Speaker 1: 17:34

You've gone beyond your expectations. Yeah, even just putting out those special gloves you have to work out gloves for the weight, yeah, there's so many things. Even those, they're just. It's foreign to you at first, it's foreign, it's all foreign. It's foreign. It's like a new world, a new language, it's all foreign. So it's small baby steps definitely towards exceeding your own expectations, whether it's in a business, in sport, in making yourself healthier, changing your lifestyle, whatever. It is small, small, little steps and everything can go beyond your expectations.

Speaker 1: 18:13

I say you can go beyond your expectations because we put so many limits on our own capabilities all the time. Yeah, and I think a lot of us do have very low expectations, because of society as well, and it's impulsive on us. I think some people have very high expectations. That's not good either, because, especially if you can't meet them, you feel bad and that's not good and we're going towards a perfectionism. Yeah, yeah, that's a different story. Yeah, generally we have low expectations because we've been told to be, we've been pushed down. Really, in general, most people have by somebody or society. You can't do that. That's difficult. Yeah, yeah, we know that that's expensive, that'd be difficult, that's not for you.

Speaker 1: 19:02

Don't start a business, don't start a too much food. Yeah, blah, blah. We know that, don't we? You're too old, you're too young. Yeah, there's always something, isn't there? There's always something to stop you. So you've got to say, look, if I had a flicker, if I had an idea, maybe there's something to that idea and you can follow up. I don't care what it is, you like doing pottery, you like? We had a friend like that. You know, she loved pottery. She started. She's opened her own little shop now where she sells pottery. Yeah, yeah, and hey, good for her. It's become a little business. It's a business. It's a business now.

Speaker 1: 19:42

So you would think, no, why are you doing that? You know, why are you doing that? Why are you putting yourself through that? No, because she wanted to, and she's gone beyond her expectations Exactly, and so it doesn't matter what it is.

Speaker 1: 20:00

No, no, usually, when you're doing things as well that go beyond your expectations, you're always doing a service or something for the world as well. So it's always usually a nice thing as well, because when you improve yourself, you improve. It has a chain effect. It does, you're right. Even if it's just doing weights, like what you were saying, then you're becoming stronger, so your family's happier, you can do more stuff with your family because you're stronger, you're more resilient, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Oh God, I really have to start training. This is making me feel like I'm going to okay. I'm going to exceed my expectations and do some kind of physical activity, definitely. Well, thank you for listening and please do do stop by on at the English sisters on Instagram or at Get Real with the English sisters too, which is a special page dedicated to the podcast, and come and say hi and you can DM us as well. Yeah, and let us know how you exceeded your expectations or how you're planning to exceed your expectations for the future, because there's always lots of things to be done. There's definitely Very exciting and motivational and make us feel great in the end. Yeah, absolutely so. Love and smells from the English sisters. Bye, bye.