Expectations.

Hmmm..expectations are of two kinds : external and internal. External expectations are part of the environment in which you live. They are thrust in your face during almost every conversation. Matthew Hayden once said , that when Sachin Tendulkar goes out to bat - "It is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man" . This is what external expectation is, completely summed up. Sachin manages this very well and hence is a successful person. Now, none of us have a burden of expectations comparable to Sachin but the idea remains the same- Manage your external expectations well. It's important that you play your own game and not somebody else's.
Internal expectations are derived from within yourselves , from your past achievements. This is very similar to your self-image. How highly do you rate yourself? There is a fine line in being unreasonable and cautious in this case.
The key is to manage expecations, to arrest the emotional engagement in expectations. It's important to remove yourselves from the environment briefly and reset your goals. This is one way to manage external expectations. Internal expectations can be controlled but external expectations can' t be.The greatest indicator that you are going along well , even when the external expectations are rising is the test of 'Quality-decison-making' . This is called 'Composure'. With the rising external expectations, it's imperative that your decision making isn't affected. There can be cases when you meet the external expectations but not your internal expectations, this isn't success. A few poor performances or a few poor results may drastically bring down the external expecatations, but you yourself know how good you are , so your internal expectations may continue to soar.