Expectations Are The Source Of ALL Disappointments

Having expectations about any situation/place/thing/person(people) are completely controlled by each individual. Nobody has the right to expect anything about anything; placing expectations only leads to disappointment.

Rarely does anything measure up to what our expectations are, but whose fault is that? The holder of the expectations is at fault if they are disappointed.

Being aware of the level of our own expectations is the only way to control the level of disappointment; don't expect much and what you do get will be easier to deal with emotionally.

I have many things that I would like to be a certain way, does it do me any good to expect them to happen the way I want? No, it does not.

If you write a thread and put a tremendous amount of effort in to doing it with the expectation that the response will be equal to the effort and it is not whose fault is it if you are disappointed?

Simply put there is a serenity prayer that is usually taught in self help groups in some variation, I have my own way to sum things up:

GIVE ME THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE THINGS I HAVE CONTROL OF
(ME, MYSELF AND I)

GIVE ME THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE THINGS I DO NOT HAVE CONTROL OF
(PEOPLE,PLACES AND THINGS)

GIVE ME THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE

I use these words daily as a reminder to keep my expectations down and this applies to every single thing I do every single day of my life.

When we think we have control of other people (places and things) we are forced to accept this is not the case.

There is such a thing as reasonable expectations and they are certainly in the same category as unreasonable ones; lack of control and disappointment exist.

For instance, I have taken the time to write this and the expectations I have are my own to control; the level of response is not in my control, therefore the level of disappointment is small.

Soul

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree


Interesting. .. .

By that logic, if you expect to die when you get old and you actually die while you are young, you are going to be seriously disappointed in the afterlife.

Or ..

I can expect that I will have oxygen to breath every second of everyday, but the second it becomes unavailable I am going to be hugely disappointed.

I think those are 2 exceptional scenarios that prove sometimes failing expectations have no consequence.