Expectations

How many times have we hear of this word: "Expectations"?

I guess even if we seldom hear of this word, subconsciously, we are using this "expectation" on ourselves all the time.

Actually, Greg used to talk to me a lot on this "expectation" theory. I did not think much of it until the church retreat last weekend. Sis Elizabeth just put it across in a good way that it kinda sums up everything and makes it easy for everyone to understand.

She said to have high level of happiness, lower your expectations.

Greg used to say we should manage our expectations. i.e. Do not expect others to do what we expect them to do.

Come to think of it, its true..ain't it?
The world and society have become so fast-paced that we are required to do more than the required norm. As a result, unknowingly, we have created a higher level of expectation for ourselves.
Because of this, subconsciously, we may have also imposed the same high level of expectation on others. (colleagues, family, friends, partners etc)
However, what happens when the so-called expectations are not met?
Do we get upset or resent over it?

As time goes by, are we becoming more unhappy because we have a so-called level of expectations and we expect ourselves and even others to reach it?

And so, as what Sis Elizabeth said, to have high levels of happiness, keep our expectations low.

Isn't it true how genuinely happy we are when something nice unexpectedly happens?

Just like last sat at the roadshow, I did not expect to open any accounts. But I was very happy that day when I managed to open accounts at the end of the day. Of course, there's a "danger" to lowering expectations. Its a pretty thin line between scraping through life and keeping our expectations at the right level. If we keep it too low, we may end up having a too laid-back attitude about life.
If we give ourselves an unattainable target, we may end up being over-stressed.
I guess, the crux is on managing it every now and then. More importantly, we should remind ourselves constantly to manage our OWN expectations and respect others' as well.

I guess after all, its not that difficult to live a simple and happy life. The problem is that we tend to complicate matters too much. I guess humans are too brainy, hence the mind tends to read too much into things.

xoxo,
:P