The Expectations Trap 🌄Rise Above It

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Doubting Our Ability

As with many ideas in our culture, we tend to fall well short of absolutely appreciating what these terms really suggest and sometimes, the apparent contradictions that they'll evoke. This is often actually the case with the word expectations. Are they to be valued and embraced or do they impede us and deform our life experiences? The solution depends on a number of things.

One size does not generally fit all, and we need to explore how we use the word expectations. From the angle of some religious traditions, we should always be disinclined to connect to expectations as they'll block our direct experience of life and impose a bondage of belief upon us. Traditional western values that instil and reward accomplishment honour high expectations, for they drive our culture and our economy.

Achieving The Unbelievable

Some individuals suffer from an absence of healthy expectations and so limit their potential and others set unachievably high expectations for themselves and therefore assure their frustration and unhappiness. Often, expectations get within the way of our being present as our mind distorts our current experience through the filter of our desires.

In this case, it seems like we have reached a paradox. Are expectations sensible or bad? The zen answer to the current questions is just, yes. The apparent paradox around this term that will cause a lot of confusion. A good place to begin is to ask if your expectations--or lack thereof---enhance your life experience? Do they assist you within the evolution of your life or do they justify your unhappiness?

The Expectation Trap

The paradox of expectation should not be resolved by merely saying that they're sensible or unhealthy. They're neither, and they are both. They're what I make them and what we tend to make of them. The responsibility lies inside us. As the architects of our lives, we'd like to be the master of our expectations, instead of being dominated by them.

If when a thorough examination, we tend to conclude that our expectations are authentic and self-generated and nonetheless we tend to still struggle in their attainment, we've got a chance to look at why that's so. On the opposite hand, if these desires don't seem to be of our own making however simply obligatory upon us, we are able to unshackle ourselves from this burden.