Expectations and Perspective — Best Considered Standing in a Waterfall in Iceland
It won't always be rainbows.
It won't always be rain, either, so let's not start off by stepping in fud (or mud, given that we're standing at the base of one of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland.) This idea of none or the other is something I've been finding intersects on all planes of my life as of late — as a positive person, I embrace the existence of hardship and pain for the added perspective they bring, and know that not everything can be solved with faith just as keenly as sometimes things will resolve if left well enough alone. Perspective is a hell of a drug, and a tool that can be used to bolster positivity or grow the dark places within us into roiling maelstroms. We expect things based on our perspective, instead of informing our perspective of our expectations.
Why can't you just post beautiful pictures without rambling philosophical tracts?
Truthfully, I really don't know. The pictures I take as I roam around the world are my stores of value. They correlate to ideas and memories and perspectives and desires separate from the physical experience. I can rarely pull them up and work with them without being sent on a crazy tangent that is maybe connected in a way that only I tenuously understand. I bring them here to show you, and in the process all of my riches come tumbling out; you end up with all sorts of personal stories, random of chunks of my brain (gross, sorry) and if we're all lucky, perhaps some useful advice.
Focus... rainbows.
I want you to think about, and work on, your expectations. This is not just a blockchain crypto market blogging networking thing — I'm talking about your work, your relationships, your emotions, your dreams; the basic tool set that you craft your life with. Do you believe the world owes you nothing but rainbows? Are you in a place where you feel that anything you do will leave you standing alone in the pouring rain? Sometimes we lose track of our expectations even as they control us, which means we fall out of touch with the ability they have to help us be better overall... and to harm us. I talk about this a lot on my Steem community radio shows, but I want to leave some key points here for you to think about. I find they help me when I'm piling it on too thick or not supporting myself enough. Sometimes, I think about them while standing in double rainbows that arc across my vision and drench me in prismatic mist. And sometimes, I think about them late at night, curled in a blanket in front of the harsh light of my monitor, willing my eyes to stay open just a little longer and hating myself when they do.
Your expectations of yourself should be high enough to motivate you when you're stagnating. It's okay, and important, to be the one who cares enough to kick your own ass to try harder.
Your expectations of yourself should be flexible enough that you don't burn yourself out trying to meet the impossible, and that you can step back, practice self care, and be proud of what you accomplish when you are trying without hating on yourself.
Your expectations of the things you cannot control, like the world and people around you, should be logical. Temper faith with reason, acknowledge that the ride will never be free, know that you need to want it, prove it, and make it happen, and don't get caught up in the frustration and sadness that comes when you feel like others are to blame for things not going the way you want. (Easier typed than done, trust, I know.)
Your expectations should inform your perspective, and not the other way around. At the very least, give it a shot and see how the change works for you. Instead of a bad mood creating negative expectations, or a giddy high creating expectations perched on pedestals just waiting for a crushing collapse, focus on a set of balanced expectations that hold up from every perspective. Because you're human — your perspective will change a lot.
Does it sound preachy? Probably. (Sorry.) As I flip back through these shimmery, ephemeral views of Skógafoss, I realize that a large portion of the improvements I've made in my life over the last few years has revolved around my taking better control of my expectations. My expectations for myself and what I was capable of in Iceland were exactly what I needed them to be; my expectations for the country itself, the same — the push that no one can give me but me, and the reining in that I won't accept from anyone else. It's played into my work, my travel, my relationships, the way that I look at myself, and even the way that I interact with the chain. There might not be rainbows all the time, but I've found I'm more okay with that than I first thought.
These photos and words are my own work, inspired by travels all over this pretty blue marble of ours. I hope you like them. 🌶️
Your expectations should inform your perspective.
This is so true . It breaks the spiral (downwards or upwards) and allows you to focus on achieving things.
Thanks for the post . Love it
When you find yourself lost in your words, while also sitting next to you as you write then, and then alone again just watching the rainbows.
Hello, great post, great shots, Iceland is on our bucket list! I just realised what you wrote fits exactly to how I'm improving myself and the goals I set up. I always wanted to speak Spanish, within one year I reached communication level and since January with my love we are in travel across Latin America, that was another goal. I have to admit, what you wrote works, but again, it's easier to write that do.
I find that it's all about balance. I can't not have any expectations anymore than I can have no perspective or desire. I generally try to focus my expectations on myself and share my perspective freely with anyone that wants it. I think our attachments to our own perspectives, expectations, and desire cause us the most suffering and grief. Ultimately no one can really manage any attachments except their own though and I suppose the day we give up all attachments is the day we cease to exist in this realm. Who knows... I feel pretty detached from everything most of the time now, perhaps our vices and desires are the things that keep us in a corporeal form and cause us to occupy these meatsacks to begin with. Well I am rambling at this point, but to quote one of my favorite songs: Life is a waterfall, we're one in the river and one again after the fall. Thanks for the thought food.
I love these photos, the rainbow and stones..
Your 4 points on expectations and flexibility are excellent simple ways to live life and stay happy..always practicing and improving I hope. I love the 360 links..takes you right there doesn't it? :) Amazing Crim
Perspective is a topic which I have been kind of obsessed with since a while, when it comes to that on any situation I try to have not one but many as possible in order to make a good analisys, and of course I try to do all this as objective as I can, to not lose what is real, you know? I like to say that I use a prisma in order to see all the posibilities, and you reminded me of that with the phrase: "prismatic mist" :)
Sometimes it gets confusing. I have this thing that I feel how a situation is going to end by taking into account some clues or details, those little things that can tell you a lot on something, and these situations usually (not always) end like I thought they would; I think it's some kind of intuition, so it happens to me that I tend to cheat on myself when I deep inside know that things are going to have a bad ending, it's like I don't want to accept that I cannot control some things and I think I will be able to change them, so I get fustrated and end up suffering. My expectations were high even when I knew, thanks to my perspective, that it wasn't going to end well. So I think my perspective informed my expectations but I didn't paid attention to it, maybe? However, I know there are times in which I'm just conditioning myself regarding a situation or person, my expectations informing my perspective, could be? For me it's pretty confusing and weird, that's why I'm telling you in this unsure way.
Now, I have never considered the relationship between perspective and expectation like you did here, but I think it's pretty useful, you reminded me that it's important to have expectations on yourself before than anyone else, but I try not to have expectations on everything else since there's something I find positive on it, when you don't have expectations and get to see the outcome of something you don't get mad or sad that it wasn't as you thought it to be, and if the outcome was good you just get happily surprised, the stoics way heheh
I like that you show your beautiful pictures with rambling philosophical tracts hahah for me that's goal! Please keep on doing it, it's great and useful, I'm sure you can make someone feel better with this post as you did with me, since I'm not having a good time lately and this really touched me. I'm glad that there are still people who write and speak this way, you know, philosophical; plus your beautiful iceland pics!!!! I hope to get there someday, great shots indeed!
(Sorry that I almost made I post in here jesus :'v)
Greetings!!
You and Clay write such deep and meaningful posts that I don't even know how to comment half the time. And then I write "Choo and Crimmy don't die in a ditch".
Lol
Great waterfall and rainbow photographs! By the looks of them, it was Summertime?
Wise and great advise there Crim - I agree. It sounds and looks like you've had a great journey around the World already, more than most people! Keeping perspective can be tough sometimes.... We are just a speck on the timeframe of history, what's the worse that can happen, enjoy it and enjoy it all now.
NICE!
I think the real question is why people find falling things so fascinating. Water: boring, water falling: f’in amazing. People walking:ehh, people falling: lol. Leaves. Rain. Snow. Hmmmmm this train on of thought has no destination but is packed full of thoughts looking to explore. Falling in love is the best part of love, falling wins. But wait there’s more! Rocks. Falling rocks? Yup still more fascinating although probably dangerous while driving. It’s not like falling things have just appeared, what’s the longest falling thing you know of? If a water fall falls for the first time and hast reached bottom would you call it’s a waterfall or waterfallings? Waterfalls are loud but snow is quiet, so quiet things fall slowly. Just like the leaves into the fire. Is fire falling? Like are ashes just falling upwards? Does gravity solely dictate what falls? If so what about falling stars? Do things fall in space. A waterfall in space. Now all o hear is that Offspring song in my head. Falling, I’m falling. Now I’m listening to that song. I stopped writing this comment for like 5 minutes, but you didn’t see that. Your reading straight through. It’s odd. What is seamless to you as you read actually is compressed time. We’re all falling aren’t we. Water we are. Confined by boundaries larger than us. Even as we have hopes at the edge of our lakes, where we turn a bit of the dry earth into mud, we are far smaller. Slowly heading toward the cliff, to show in grandeur our thunderous falling. Well I think this thought train is ending. Most of the thoughts got off and the rest are sleeping or listening to music. Not even sure what perspective this is, maybe the fourth wall. Hmmm. Makes me think about books. How books are the only true record of a persons thoughts. But that a discussion for another comment. Oh yeah nice rainbows. I bet it smelled fresh.
-M
I really like that Offspring song . _.
well you kinda got me on rainbows, always something magically beautiful that leaves you in awe of it's majestic wonders, nice you captured the moment in time and shared them thank you. The pic with the Inukshuk is a truly beautiful priceless :)