Do your own research to avoid pitfalls of overestimation

Have you ever fallen into the trap of overestimation? It’s easy to do. Perhaps you overestimated how hungry you were. Your eyes were bigger than your stomach. You could even overestimate a restaurant because of the brilliant recommendations from friends. You get there and find it’s a bit lackluster. This could be because of your personal tastes or even your frame of mind that day. It can also happen when you assume how the environment, service and food will be.

Sometimes people overestimate how a celebration will go, from a birthday to an anniversary or even a wedding. When it falls short in your estimation, it can be quite disappointing. What happens when it entails bigger consequences?

Perhaps you overestimated the return on investment you made in an organization, stocks or a costly professional service. Sometimes these groups over promise and under deliver. It’s not fun to be on the receiving end of this type of dynamic. You most likely feel duped. Some even feel betrayed. At the very least, you resent having invested your personal time, heart, trust and often money in something that did not come to fruition as expected or hoped.

How can you prevent this from occurring in the future? Although this is a part of life that happens to everyone, there are a few things you can do moving forward to give yourself the best chance of avoiding this pitfall.

■ Don’t operate in blind faith. Just because a service or organization was a good fit for someone else doesn’t mean that it will meet your needs. Don’t take someone’s word for it just because you like and trust them.

■ Be judicious and thorough in your assessment before you sign on the dotted line, so to speak. Salespeople will try to create a sense of urgency, so be prudent before committing.

■ Check in with your deepest wisdom, gut instinct and intuition for the best path forward for you.