There is a saying that goes, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
Unfortunately, expectations have proven to be the root of all disappointment and that is, unfortunately, the hard truth.
Most of us have experienced the pain of not having what we thought we would get out of something, someone or a situation.
The truth is, life and people are unpredictable and situations change all the time. Sometimes we hype ourselves up about something so much that we convince ourselves it will turn out exactly the way we wanted it to, but if it doesn’t, we are often left feeling irritated and disappointed and that’s probably because there was some level of expectation.
One thing we need to realize is that life and people are not things we can control, and as much as we’d like to control it, we just simply cannot.
Things will not always turn out the way we want it to and that something we must come to terms with if we want to avoid disappointment.
The best thing to do is to keep a positive outlook on life and hope for the best. This way you can start investing your time and emotions into the present rather than in people and situations.
Here are a few things you should consider before having expectations:
1. Opinions:
People will not always have the same opinions and views as you. We are all different and we all see life differently, that’s the beauty of it all. When someone doesn’t share the same view as you there is space to learn something new.
2. Perfection:
We all strive for perfection in one way or another, and sometimes when people don’t match our levels of perfection we can experience a bit of disappointment. We are all unique, and we all come with a variety of personality traits. Some perfect, some not so perfect but ultimately, we, and everything else around us is perfectly, imperfect.
3. Happiness:
In relationships, we try to do the best we can to make our loved ones happy and when we are sad we unconsciously expect them to do the same. Happiness is self-made, we have an endless supply of it within our hearts. Some people find it harder to cultivate than others, but once we realize that we are the only ones who can make ourselves truly happy, and that happiness is self-made, we will stop relying on other people to make happy
4. People Molding:
No one will ever be able to fit into your perfect idea of them. They are their own special unique selves. We often think we know what’s best for people or loved ones but actually whats best for you might not be best for them.
5. Mind Reading:
Some arguments within relationships be in friends, family or lovers often start because we expect them to do what we want, exactly the way we saw them doing it in our minds. This is once again, a form of expectation. It’s best to trust that they will do what you want to the best of their ability, thus formulating trust within the relationship and avoiding disappointment.
and finally,
6. Acceptance:
One way to avoid feeling disappointed is to learn the universal law of acceptance. It states that if we accept reality as unpredictable we can learn to focus on the positive and ever-present now. In this state, we actually open the pathway needed to then focus on creating and attracting the best solution to any of life’s undesirable situation outcomes.
So to conclude, try and think about one time someone or something has ‘disappointed’ you, then think of other ways you could have viewed that situation differently and try practice any one of the simple things one shouldn’t expect, as its apart of life, and you will see that expecting less gives way to less disappointment and negative emotions attached to not receiving what we expected to.
