Expectations as Distractions

As the calendar turns, there tends to be a surge of expectations. Expectations about how the year is supposed to go, how motivated you should feel, how quickly things should improve, or what your progress should look like by now. Most people don’t realize how distracted they are by their expectations until their attention is already split.

The problem with expectations is that they pull your focus out of the moment you’re actually in and into an uncertain, uncontrollable future. Instead of competing where your feet are, you start managing an invisible, unrealistic scoreboard. When that happens, performance slips. Not because effort disappears, but because attention does.

How Expectations Hijack Focus

In competition, leadership, and life, expectations often disguise themselves as motivation. They feel productive. They sound like ambition. But when expectations turn into entitlement, they stop guiding action and start pulling attention away from execution.

I see this constantly with athletes and business leaders, especially early in a season. The struggle isn’t a lack of preparation or discipline. It’s that they stop competing in the moment they’re actually in. Instead of responding to what’s real, they’re reacting to an imagined version of where they think they should be. Expectations get loud, execution gets quiet, and frustration follows.

The Truth About Expectations

Ambition isn’t the problem. Expectations, on their own, aren’t the problem. The issue is treating expectations like predictors of how things are supposed to unfold. Expectations ignore the uncontrollable variables: momentum shifts, imperfect conditions, emotional swings, and randomness. They assume a clean, linear path forward. Competition never works that way.

When reality pushes back against expectation, attention drifts even further. Resistance feels like failure. Emotions spike. Decision-making tightens or becomes reactive. This isn’t weakness. It’s what happens when a system was built around outcomes instead of adaptability.

Compete in the Present

One of my favorite stats in golf is bounce-back percentage. A bounce-back is recorded when a golfer makes birdie or better immediately after a bogey or worse. I love this stat because it’s a direct measure of attention. Can you let go of what just happened and fully compete in what’s happening next?

We don’t track bounce-backs in daily life, but the skill still applies. When a pitch gets turned down, a mistake shows up at work, or a plan doesn’t unfold the way you expected, the question isn’t whether you’re disappointed. It’s where your attention goes next.

Your expectations may get broken. Reality may not cooperate. That doesn’t mean you stop. It means you recenter, adjust, and stay engaged with the moment that’s actually available to you.

Direction matters. Standards matter. But attention to the present moment is what drives performance. You don’t need to lower the bar. You need to stop letting expectations pull you out of the fight you’re already in.