What You Expect is What You Experience
Maxwell Leadership Podcast
John Maxwell
4.7 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do your expectations shape your reality—or limit it? Imagine what would happen if you raised the bar for yourself and those around you. In this week's episode, John Maxwell reveals how the expectations you set determine the experiences you create, and why possibility thinking is every leader's secret advantage.
After his lesson, Mark Cole and Chris Robinson share actionable strategies for resetting team expectations and building a culture of higher achievement, so you can apply John's insights right away.
Key takeaways:
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Successful leaders continually set higher, self-driven expectations and upgrade them over time.
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Possibility thinking empowers you to see problems as opportunities and persevere through adversity.
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Your beliefs must match your expectations—when you genuinely believe in your potential and direction, you inspire those around you to do the same.
Our BONUS resource for this episode is the What You Expect is What You Experience Worksheet, which includes fill-in-the-blank notes from John's teaching. You can download the worksheet by visiting MaxwellPodcast.com/WhatYouExpect and clicking "Download the Bonus Resource."
Take the next step in your growth journey and become a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Member. Click here to speak with a Program Advisor today!
References:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. |
| 0:10.9 | I'm so glad you're here because today is about expectations and experience. |
| 0:16.5 | But before I do that, Chris, I'm so glad to have you in this every time. |
| 0:20.1 | I'm glad to be here. |
| 0:20.7 | Every time. Brand new year to be here. Every time. |
| 0:21.6 | Brand new year. |
| 0:22.6 | It's brand new year. |
| 0:23.6 | It's, it's, uh, thank you for finally showing up. No, I'm just kidding. We did a podcast a little earlier this year, but here's what I want to ask you. So you've had a little time to reflect on 2025. Yeah. to 2025, what's probably one or two of the biggest experiences of things you're probably the most |
| 0:39.3 | proud of? Yeah, well, I've got a couple that come to mind. I take, just like you, I'd take a couple days at the end of each year, and I go and take some time to reflect, and I did that through a cruise. And so I figured, you know, a couple years ago, I go to a hotel and hold up anyway. You know, why can I go to a hotel that's moving and I can see a little bit something different without having to do anything. I like that. You know, get out in my car or anything like that. So I did that the last couple years. But as a result of that, one of the parts of that reflection time is, what are those things that I'm grateful for, what are those things I'm proud of, going through a picture of view, things of that nature. |
| 1:11.4 | But when I think about two things I'm really proud of last year, number one is the book. |
| 1:16.1 | I mean, the impact and the difference that that book is made in people's lives is open |
| 1:21.6 | up doors for me to speak in places and for people to get a piece of my heart and my story, it's really impacting lives. |
| 1:29.5 | The stories that people are coming back to me with has just been amazing. |
| 1:32.7 | The second thing would be is still the amount of time, as much as I was away from home last year, |
| 1:37.7 | was the amount of time that I was able to still get with the children to be able to take each one of the six, |
| 1:42.7 | you know, on a single individual |
| 1:44.2 | trip and have that time with them individually. |
| 1:47.3 | So making sure that I was still tuned in and available and creating memories and experience |
| 1:53.4 | with them was my biggest accomplishment because I think we get away from that as high-paced |
| 1:57.9 | leaders. |
| 1:58.3 | Sometimes there's a separation of we go all success |
| 2:01.6 | in business and then there's a complacency. It settles at home and I don't want that to kick |
... |
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