Expectations

What to expect when you’re expecting. Disappointment, heart break, hurt feelings, “unanswered prayers”, and an all around bad day. I read an article yesterday that said the leading cause of divorce was not money, not infidelity, not even lack of communication, but was actually unmet expectations.

I never thought about it before but I bet that’s the major problem in most relationships. I mean friendships, work, family, even church. Expecting something from the other and them not delivering. These can be unspoken expectations, even ridiculous outrageous expectations, but failing to meet them results in the exact same feelings of heart break disappointment and the feeling that you’re not worth their effort.

When you expect your boss to give you the day off with pay instead you have to work or not get paid there is disappointment. When you expect your friend to offer to help move or to help with something else and they don’t there is that feeling of not being worth their effort. When you expect a loved one to care for you the way you care for them and they don’t that truly is heartbreaking.

I have lived my life trying to figure out how to curb my expectations. How to not expect things from people no matter how trivial they are. If you live your life with expectations that are often unmet then you’ll eventually start to expect the worst from everyone. It’s a difficult row to hoe when you feel like there’s nothing to count on but as long as you live in your expectations that’s exactly how you’ll end up.

As with everything it is easier said than done but we really would be happier if we tried to live without expectation if we tried to be truly happy for all that we get and love on each other regardless of what we expect from them or what they expect from us. There truly are great people in this world and they will be overlooked if we don’t live beyond our expectations.