It’s very hard to do well at something – or even to enjoy it – without grasping the idea of expectation management. The reason is straightforward enough: expecting too much usually leads to disappointment and disillusionment.

Most of us have probably experienced this in the course of our sporting endeavours. Let me quickly explain how it works, because I believe the concept is more important than ever in the world of financial advice.

I’ve shown a particular interest in three sports during my life: golf, chess and karate. There may be people who insist one, some or even all of these don’t actually qualify as sports, but let’s not got dragged into that debate just now.

I’ve been a club champion at golf, a county-level player at chess and a black belt at karate. So I think it’s fair to say – without wishing to sound boastful – that I’ve been pretty decent at all three.

But being pretty decent isn’t the same as being brilliant. And the problem lies in those rare instances when you do achieve brilliance and somehow convince yourself you’ve permanently raised the bar.

Imagine, for example, that one Saturday I shoot a round of 65, successfully deploy the Frankenstein-Dracula variation – I kid you not – and wow my fellow dojo-goers with a spectacular spinning back-kick. What would all this mean?

Well, let’s first consider what it wouldn’t mean. It most definitely wouldn’t mean I could devote Sunday to effortlessly defeating Tiger Woods, Garry Kasparov and Mister Miyagi. It wouldn’t mean I’d suddenly achieved genius status in all three pursuits.

In fact, it would simply boil down to an aberration. It would represent a wonderful but fleeting anomaly. In all likelihood, it would go down in history as a fluke – one of those extraordinary occasions when, almost inexplicably, everything seems to fall perfectly into place.

Crucially, this sobering truth couldn’t be recognised without an appreciation of the bigger picture. In other words, the occurrence of brilliance invariably has to be placed in a broader context.

In my case the broader context reveals decades of incremental advances, punctuated by sporadic and wholly unsustained bursts of outperformance. Conclusion: I should be delighted to have hit new heights, but it would be wrong to mistake them for a “new normal”.

This interpretation of events is both honest and pragmatic. It guards against future dismay and unpleasant surprises. It should spare me undue anguish or astonishment if I subsequently struggle to break par, succumb to fool’s mate or get my teeth kicked in.

So how does all this relate to financial advice? The answer is that IFAs have a similar obligation to manage expectations in an age when many clients don’t fully accept the reality of the economic landscape.

Here the issue also arises from confusing an aberration with a new normal. The anomaly in question is the era of “easy money”, which unfolded between the end of the global financial crisis and the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strictly speaking, of course, it’s never really “easy” to make money. But during those years it was undoubtedly easier than it had often been before – and it was indisputably easier than it is now.

It’s therefore alarming that such a large number of people seemingly remain content to rack up liabilities when they should be striving to accumulate assets. A tendency to favour a short-term view and keep spending still prevails.

This is the stuff of false expectations. Anyone who had trouble generating and preserving wealth in the past needs to understand the feat is probably twice as difficult now. Many individuals are looking at their finances through dangerously rose-tinted spectacles – and many more possess absolutely no meaningful knowledge of what it means to save effectively.

This is why I feel some advisers place too much emphasis on topics such as fund selection and portfolio construction. Worse still, some continue to dangle the carrot of somehow achieving spectacular returns.

Many clients don’t need to hear any of that. It encourages the sort of thinking that persuades me I’m ready to outdrive Tiger, outmanoeuvre Kasparov and outfight Miyagi. It’s not practical, and it’s not helpful.

Clients instead need to know the process of saving and investing – like personal improvement in sport – is about sensible goals, steady progress and little victories. In tandem, they need to know a life-long financial journey has to be underpinned by responsibility and realism.

These qualities should constitute the bedrock of expectation management in an era increasingly characterised by uncertainty. The fundamental message might be prosaic, even uncomfortable, but it’s one that’s rooted in credibility and thoroughly worthy of clients’ trust and respect.

Andrew Goodwin is co-founder and CEO of Truly Independent and the author of ‘The Happy Financial Adviser’.