The Meat Dish

My cousin sister recently visited Mumbai from Mangalore along with her husband and young daughter. My mother talks to her quite often, so she was looking forward to meeting her. We ordered food online, but my mother wanted to make a special meat dish for her, which she had liked in the past.

At lunch, my cousin confirmed that she had become vegetarian in sync with her daughter. My The mother's expression dropped dramatically. She had spent a lot of time making my cousin’s favourite dish and was really disappointed. When you do something with affection and find that the outcome goes awry, it is natural to feel disappointed. Both agreed it was just a matter of communication. and changing habits

There was not much that could be done but the rest of us enjoyed the meat dish. One of the challenges in life we tend to have is to live up to expectations. It makes it difficult for the person setting expectations and the person who’s meeting them. In an organisational concept, appraisals are a mechanism to manage this process but quite often both parties go through the process as a way of ensuring increments happen rather than the genuine feedback that is required.

Personal expectations can sometimes be too high or too low, which can be overwhelming. When organisations set long term goals, more often than not they miss them (either overachieve or underachieve). In my past life, I have never yet seen any organisation hit the bull’s eye consistently.

The meat dish serves as a metaphor for a result that fell short of expectations. Good communication can lessen misunderstandings and help set realistic expectations, but having expectations can sometimes be restrictive. Success can mislead you and failure can set you back. Being true to yourself, however, is likely to yield better outcomes without swaying to expectations.

So have your favourite dish over the weekend

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