Namaste and welcome to another exciting posting for the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back. Thank you for taking time out of your otherwise busy day to join me as I talk about unrealistic expectations.
I think unrealistic and idealistic expectations screw with happiness more than ANYTHING else for humans. We all have these ideals of how we THINK things should and ought to be, but they are not necessarily grounded in reality. People's behavior, for example is one of those great pitfalls of expectation vs. disappointment. We would like to believe that other people will behave up to a certain standard based upon societal expectations of them. Often times though, we are left disappointed because our fellow humans frequently fail to meet these expectations. And when did our expectations get so lofty?!? It's no wonder we are able to not only fail to meet the expectations of OTHERS, but we often fail at meeting our own expectations of our selves. This is particularly true with raising children, who ironically have super high expectations for the parents, but few to none for themselves. Children are selfish and demanding and rarely live up to the parent's expectations, regardless of how small and insignificant they are... little things like being nice, getting good grades in school, and showing respect to self and others don't really seem like they should be that hard of goals to reach. Even adults have significant problems with these issues. Showing self respect and respect for others is the first step in meeting the expectations placed upon you.
Our bosses at work often have unrealistic expectations on us as well as they continue to demand more and more work the harder you try. This often comes at the pitfall of interpersonal relationships because it is almost always the case where one person is working exponentially harder than his/her fellow co-workers. It's the expectation that screws us up in our minds. Expecting people to work as hard as you do. Expecting people to care as much as you do. Expecting others to value the same ideals that you do....
Do you see where I am going with this? Sometimes we truly DO have to lower our expectations in this lifetime... not to give in or give up, but to save our own sanity, because quite frankly, our unrealistic expectations of others WILL drive any sane person crazy after a while.
Now I want to move on to the next part of this blog to explain why the system wants you to have unrealistic expectations. The answer is really simple... your happiness is dangerous to the system. They want you to keep your expectations higher than the reality around you... it keeps you wanting more and more, makes your appetite and your ideals insatiable. Happiness is a threat to the establishment because happy people don't need to go out and buy an endless stream of material possessions to find happiness. Happy people don't need to always strive toward reaching unrealistic expectations placed upon them by others. Happy people just don't care to try to please the un-pleaseable. Unreasonable expectations lead to unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment in life. But to lower or eliminate those expectations suddenly frees a person to open up with love and empathy rather than being stressed over trivialities and unrealistic expectations.
I think unrealistic and idealistic expectations screw with happiness more than ANYTHING else for humans. We all have these ideals of how we THINK things should and ought to be, but they are not necessarily grounded in reality. People's behavior, for example is one of those great pitfalls of expectation vs. disappointment. We would like to believe that other people will behave up to a certain standard based upon societal expectations of them. Often times though, we are left disappointed because our fellow humans frequently fail to meet these expectations. And when did our expectations get so lofty?!? It's no wonder we are able to not only fail to meet the expectations of OTHERS, but we often fail at meeting our own expectations of our selves. This is particularly true with raising children, who ironically have super high expectations for the parents, but few to none for themselves. Children are selfish and demanding and rarely live up to the parent's expectations, regardless of how small and insignificant they are... little things like being nice, getting good grades in school, and showing respect to self and others don't really seem like they should be that hard of goals to reach. Even adults have significant problems with these issues. Showing self respect and respect for others is the first step in meeting the expectations placed upon you.
Our bosses at work often have unrealistic expectations on us as well as they continue to demand more and more work the harder you try. This often comes at the pitfall of interpersonal relationships because it is almost always the case where one person is working exponentially harder than his/her fellow co-workers. It's the expectation that screws us up in our minds. Expecting people to work as hard as you do. Expecting people to care as much as you do. Expecting others to value the same ideals that you do....
Do you see where I am going with this? Sometimes we truly DO have to lower our expectations in this lifetime... not to give in or give up, but to save our own sanity, because quite frankly, our unrealistic expectations of others WILL drive any sane person crazy after a while.
Now I want to move on to the next part of this blog to explain why the system wants you to have unrealistic expectations. The answer is really simple... your happiness is dangerous to the system. They want you to keep your expectations higher than the reality around you... it keeps you wanting more and more, makes your appetite and your ideals insatiable. Happiness is a threat to the establishment because happy people don't need to go out and buy an endless stream of material possessions to find happiness. Happy people don't need to always strive toward reaching unrealistic expectations placed upon them by others. Happy people just don't care to try to please the un-pleaseable. Unreasonable expectations lead to unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment in life. But to lower or eliminate those expectations suddenly frees a person to open up with love and empathy rather than being stressed over trivialities and unrealistic expectations.
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