I’ve spoken on a couple of webinars recently about the subject of entitlement, and the effects it has in business.
When someone has a sense of entitlement in a certain area, they generally believe that the world or (or people in it) should be (or behave) in a certain way.
Now obviously we can’t control the way things are or the way others choose to behave, we can only control our own actions and how we choose to respond to things. But when we’re entitled, if things aren’t the way we think they “should be” then we have a problem.
See, the issue here is that when we feel that we are “entitled” to things being a certain way, and then they aren’t, we’re effectively making ourselves the victim in that situation.
We’re leaving our happiness/progress/whatever in the hands of the world (or the people in it) showing up for us in a certain way. And if it doesn’t, we’re stopped dead in our tracks. We moan, we blame, we talk about how things “should” be different.
But the world isn’t going to change itself to meet our expectations.
What does the world owe us?
The solution, is to realise that the world owes none of us anything. The fact that we’re here as a human, on this planet, in this time is an absolute miracle! Do you know that the chances of you existing are around 400 trillion to one? That’s mind blowing, right?
By remembering the odds of us being here in the first place, it makes the thought that someone “should” be doing something for us, or that we “should” be able to do this or do that, a little more trivial.
Tony Robbins says “Trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world will change in an instant”.
And you know what? He’s dead right.
If we can learn to stop expecting things to be a certain way or being “entitled” to things being a certain way, and instead be grateful of everything that we have and our ability to completely choose how we respond to everything and anything, we’ll start making huge leaps forward no matter what’s happening around us.
And as an added bonus, we’ll feel great while doing it too!
You can’t feel grateful and fearful, or grateful and angry, at the same time. Gratitude’s a powerful tool.
We all have the tendency to slip into a feeling of entitlement sometimes, we’re all only human. But try and become aware of it.
Catch yourself when you start getting annoyed because someone isn’t acting in the way you think they “should” be. Catch yourself if you start saying how a certain situation “should” be different.
Everything starts with awareness. Once we become aware of our own behaviour, we can start to change it.
Remember; trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world will change in an instant 🙂
Have a great week!
Dan
Dan Holloway - Founder of Scrap the 9 to 5 Ltd
SFM Elite & DEA Black Member of the SFM/DEA
