Life is full of expectations. Our bosses, spouses, parents, teachers, children, friends and even perfect strangers all have expectations of us and we have expectations of our bosses, spouses, parents, teachers, children, friends and even perfect strangers as well.
Sounds fair enough.
You have expectations of me - and I have expectations of you. But how effective are we really at communicating our expectations?
Not very, based on all the anger, disappointments, and hurt there is in the world today. If you are asking, what does one have to do with the other, let me explain.
Why does someone get angry, disappointed, or hurt? Because their expectations are not met. They had an expectation of a particular outcome, and that outcome did not come to fruition, so they experience the anger, dissappointment, or hurt depending on the situation at hand.
In those instances where our expectations are met, we are able to allow ourselves to be happy, feel joy, love and be at peace.
In some cases, the "agent of the pain" is aware of the expectations, and in other cases we assume that they should automatically understand and agree to our unspoken or poorly communicated expectations.
In either case, the opportunity lies in recognizing that just because you have an expectation of somebody or something it does not necessarily mean that the something or somebody is willing or able to meet your expectations.
We live our best lives when we do not allow the outside circumstances or situations and missed expectations determine how we feel about our lives, about ourselves, and about the people and world around us and instead take ownership for our reaction to the situation or circumstance.
The best expectation is the one you place on yourself; that demands you have a positive outlook and attitude regardless of the situation or circumstance. When we can adequately and consistently meet this, our own expectation of ourselves, we will have satisfied ourselves - thus giving ourselves the permission to be happy.
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