Expectations, outcomes you desire when thinking about some future event, sometimes lead you into a place of joy and success.
Other times expectations bring you disappointment and despair. How you experience life depends on the scenario you choose to visualize – and probably hope to realize in life.
Free-will allows you to live in happiness or distress.
While you cannot control the behavior of another person or organization, you alone choose how you want your world to look.
Huh?
A concrete example, taken from my own life, illustrates exactly how expectations can lead to misery or to delight.
A few years ago I was scheduled to drive from Virginia to Georgia with a friend who, in my experience, was quite negative. I dreaded spending a three-day weekend on a road trip with him. As I shared my feelings with a wise friend she told me to, “Have a different listening for him.”
In other words, she suggested that instead of expecting him to be the negative person I had known for a few years, I could, instead, expect him to be great company and a joy to travel with, even for a long weekend.
I did exactly what she suggested. I saw my friend in a different light and we enjoyed the trip. Perhaps more importantly, I discovered a friend I had not known existed despite the fact he had been in my world for a few years.
We see what we expect to see
When I expected my friend to be negative I only witnessed the behaviors that fit my view of him. He met my expectations to a tee. People always show up the way we expect them to. Our frequency of vibration drops to the level of that person. We attract what we vibrate in harmony with. My friend could only show up in that negative light because I felt negative myself. I could only attract his positivity coming from that frequency of vibration.
We see what we accept to see
I had put my friend into a box. I limited the possible rage of behaviors he could experience and display. I did it all by myself in my own mind.
We all put people into boxes – without even thinking about doing so. That mode of operation reflects a program running us from our subconscious mind.
Holiday family gatherings pose the perfect situation for choosing a new way to look at your family members. If your family gatherings fail to invigorate you or cause you to feel uncomfortable and lead to unpleasant memories, use your new knowledge of expectations to choose to expect good things and happy helpful behaviors and interactions with each person you never really considered to be ideal, or even tolerable, company.
Thrive! Struggle is optional.
Change your expectations. Become aware of what you expect and what you accept from others.
JenningsWire.com is created by National Publicity Firm, Annie Jennings PR that specializes in providing book marketing strategies to self-published and traditionally published authors. Annie Jennings PR books authors, speakers and experts on major top city radio talk shows that broadcast to the heart of the market, on local, regionally syndicated and national TV shows and on influential online media and in prestigious print magazines and newspapers.
