Eighth week expectations

Why is it that lecturers only clarify their expectations in the final days before the assignment is due? No wonder people do things the night before! It's really frustrating to spend so much time working on something to be told it's not what they wanted, and that you're going to lose marks for all your effort.

People are often unclear about their expectations. I had a rather nasty and expensive lesson in clear versus implied expectations just last week! In the classroom, it is essential to have clear expectations. But what about in 'real life'? Expectations can have both positive and negative effects - they can help us to perform and achieve, or leave us forever falling short. I've always held myself to very high expectations, and probably others as well. I think that we should have high expectations of ourselves, or we might see it as reasonable to become complacent or sloppy. High expectations of others can be positive too, so long as they're not critical, but rather in the light of 'benefit of the doubt.' I think it's important that we keep the ideas of grace, love and gratitude close in mind: grace for when we or others fall short of expectations, love to remind us to seek others' needs above our own, and gratitude so that we never take the service of others and blessings in life for granted. Perhaps this is true 'resilience'?

What kind of expectations do you have of yourself - high, low, realistic? What sort of expectations do you have of others? Do you think they're healthy?