How To Embrace Your Expectations

I woke up today morning, like I usually do every day, with hope. Along with that was a list of things I hope will happen and a list of things I need to do. That is how I wake up almost every day; it is how you do, with responsibilities and expectations. Each new day is an opportunity, a chance for more, new exciting things.

And with that comes disappointments because a number if not all of the things we want to happen will not happen.

It is advisable to manage our expectations. I have read this several times. At times, not have any, but we’re human, and life is expectations. We live in a world where everything is happening every time. We can’t live without expectations.

The other approach used is to suppress those expectations. Pretend they are not there so that if they are not met we’ll also pretend that we are not disappointed.

I’ve tried both approaches, and they didn’t work. Pretending you don’t want anything is bs, cause still, you hope for something.

But today, I woke up and had an epiphany. I’ve read great advice on writing down what we want to do on a particular day, month and then working on it. That has worked for me. But I think what we also miss in that list is what it is we expect. We only write what we know we can do on that list. But today, I wrote an expectations list.

That is everything I hope and expect will happen. The beauty of that list is that it is liberating. Everything and anything goes on that list. What I need to do, what I hope will happen, I wrote it all down. That way, I release myself from constantly thinking and hoping those things will happen by writing them down.

My expectations list went something like this today.

1. Go to my brother’s.
2. Get a call from my partner.
3. Write three articles.
4. Exercise.
5. Fast intermittently.
6. Feel ecstatic.

Some of the things in the list seem like wishful thinking, but there are next steps too.

After finishing my list, I asked myself, what could I do to make my expectations fulfilled? Like if I expect to feel ecstatic, what can I do to accomplish that? I put on my favorite rings, borrowed a cute top from my sister. When I felt angry after being scolded by my brother in the morning before we left, I acknowledged my anger.

Well, in the day, I’ll be consciously doing that that will make me feel amazing instead of hoping that it will happen. And I hope my partner will call me like he promised he would, but whether he does or not, since I’ve already written it down as an expectation, it’ll reduce the number of times I think about it. It will also not have a hold on me during the day.

Write down your expectations list, each and everything you expect of today. Do what you can to make those expectations happen. Embrace your expectations. You have them for a reason, and having a list of them is how eventually you’ll manage your disappointments because those are what you can manage. They are the reaction.

What’s on your expectations list today?

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Previously Published on medium

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