"Expect everything and attach to nothing.”

Carrie Campbell

Funny thing. I thought I have the expectations topic thought through and all my convictions about it are well established. The main one is: expect nothing, as the more you expect the higher probability, that you will end up being disappointed. For years I’ve been trying to fight my expectations with more or less success. The more expectations I remove from my life the more proud I am of myself. The general idea is that I won’t get disappointed or heartbroken because of somebody’s actions, because I didn’t expect anything in the first place. Whenever I start expecting something I give myself a slap on the wrist trying to get rid of this feeling. It’s a self preservation thing. Also the less I expect, the more chances are of a pleasant surprise (and I like pleasant surprises).

So this is a new concept, that I would like to explore further. Expect everything, but attach to nothing. 

 

At this point let’s assume that the expectations aren’t really a bad thing. On the contrary, setting high expectations is setting high standards. Without high standards human beings tend to settle down for mediocrity or position themselves as life victims. And when the good standards are set it’s easier to build the life we want.

It’s really the outcome, the specific result, that we should avoid building in our minds after each expectation is set. And this is the hard part. We’re human, so we imagine things. When the imagination kicks in, we like to create these perfect scenarios, where everything goes exactly as we have planned. The sky is blue and the sun is shining and we’re singing with the birds like a Disney princess who is just one step of meeting and marrying her Prince Charming. Well, the real world is not a Disneyland, the Prince Charming can always be late or not a great husband material and on top of that a thunderstorm might appear when least expected and ruin the whole scenery. These things happen in life and they’re not always pretty. The main idea is to except what happened, make the best out of it and move on to the new (and sometimes a lot better) outcome. 

 

Creating a plan is crucial for any big undertaking – it gives purpose, structures the activities and keeps the timelines working. But space for the unknown must always be a part of it. You cannot really predict the actual outcome of event the most meticulously planned project.

A tip of the day. Keep in mind ideas and standards, strive for them and aim for the best, but always mark your final plan with an *

*This may end up in a completely different way.