27/3/08

Expectations and preferences

Everyone have them. We've had some of it since we were kids and others we develop through the years. Some are flexible but some are non-compromising. Some are work-related, some applies to personal life and others apply to both professional and the personal aspects of our life.

Some of mine includes the following:

• Effective communication - expectation.
• Effective feedback - expectation.
• Punctuality - expectation.
• Sitting in the corner as opposed to the center table of a restaurant - preference.
• Wearing black - preference.
• Having a haircut once every two weeks - non-compromising preference.
• Arriving early to watch a movie - expectation and non-compromising preference.
• Sitting on the center seat, 6th row from the screen at the movies - almost non-compromising preference.
• Not eating vegetables - non-compromising preference.haha!
• Play badminton twice a week - really, really strong preference.

I guess the trick is to balance our own expectations and preferences with those of our friends, co-workers and family. Easier said than done, since many of them are ever so conflicting. One possibly effective way, i found, is to remove myself from the scenario of conflict. For example, if you'd rather watch Lang Buana (no judgement!) but i prefer The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King (giteww), we'll just go our separate ways; you go into Hall 1 while i'll enter Hall 6. No hard feelings.

And what if it's a non-compromising preference and it's not about conflicting movie taste? Then i guess all there is to do is this: woooooooosaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.................................................(insert hand gesture). and all will be fine again. Or will it?