Do You ANTICIPATE Enough?

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                            (Estimated Read Time 4 minutes)

Today’s topic is ANTICIPATION. Why is that such a big word? Because I think we screw it up. What does anticipation mean? Anticipation is an excitement for what's coming. It's waiting eagerly for a positive outcome. But there's an openness to it. I will tell you that most of us don't start our days with anticipation. Most of us start our days with expectation and the opposite of anticipation, which is foreboding. 

• EXPECTIATION is you predicting the future and restricting it to one outcome. Think about that for a second. It is you predicting the future and restricting it to one outcome. That is the only way you're going to find happiness. hat is a recipe for a disaster. Can we agree?
• The second is FOREBODING. And that is the exact opposite of anticipation. It's a dread for what's coming. Think about this. 

What will go wrong today?

We have anticipation, expectation, and foreboding. Which of those three do you want? Do you want to anticipate a positive outcome? Do you want an expectation that limits you to only one outcome? Do you want to have a dread for what's coming, a foreboding? I'm going to tell you that most of you are waking up with an expectation or foreboding. 

 I get it. I'm the one that talks about making your “should” a must all the time. I want the must to be a result. I get that. But you must be open to how you get there. You must have a positive anticipation for it. How many of you are waking up in the morning wondering what will go wrong today? What will go sideways today? Who will screw up today? Who won’t show up today? Think about those questions, and as your stomach tightened up a little bit, as I was asking them. They are the very definition of foreboding. 

Where focus goes, energy flows.

Remember, wherever focus goes, energy flows. Why are you allowing the negativity to start up? One of the things I've heard in the past visualizing is this or better. Setting into visualization and saying, “I'm going to be able to do this or better. This is going to happen or better.” Stay open. Anticipation is all about openness. 

The second part of this is the superpower that comes with anticipation. When you have an expectation you're very focused. You're only looking at one thing. Anticipation changes your focus. You must be able to see forward. You must look ahead and anticipate things happening. Such as, how will AI (Artificial Intelligence) affect my business.  Trust me it already has. How will a tech shortage affect my business? How will the economy affect my business? These are all things you must ask yourself to allow you to have a forward outlook to prepare.

Superpower of Anticipation

That's the SUPERPOWER OF ANTICIPATION. It's the ability to see something that could potentially be coming down the road and proactively prepare for it.. Instead of reacting to it, you need to anticipate it. You can be prepared because you did anticipate. 

Here’s a great example of anticipating. I've been talking for years about building a bench. That has a baseball reference about a team putting pitchers in and out of the game depending on who they are playing, and which batters are coming up.  That’s called having a bench full of players ready to go in at any time.  It's a little bit different in our industry. What I mean is to have people who want to start work with you ahead of time so that if and when someone decides to move on for whatever reason, you're not reacting. Most times you are focused on the here and now. But when you're anticipating, your vision, your focus goes to the horizon and it changes things. You want to anticipate things. 

We don't have enough anticipation in our lives.

What if there’s a rumbling about a factory closing or rumors that a new business coming in? Anticipate, and then proactively be ready for it.  Think about this. You're preparing to see things that are in the future and prepare for them with a belief in a positive outcome.

I don't think there's enough anticipation in our lives. Probably the best example of anticipation that I can think of is watching a child on Christmas Eve. There are no expectations. There is just this giddiness, this joy in what the future is going to bring.  There's not enough of that in our lives. Not enough in mine. I need more anticipation in my life. I can almost bet you do too. I want anticipation. That's my choice. You have a choice. you can anticipate, expect, or have forebode.

Please share this video.  We have our Shop Owner’s Round Table, on the second Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we would love you and your friends to drop by. Shop owners only. And then we have our upcoming Pocket Business Genius webinar on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.  Take care.

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