I’ve found that a common source of discontentment for people is living in expectation. It’s an easy trap to fall into.
Before we talk about what I mean by living in expectation, let’s take a look at the word expectation.
Expectation has the word expect as its base. And when you expect. What happens? Well, you could get what you expect, but you might not. In fact, we often don’t get what we expect. We may get more than we expect. Or we could get less than we expect. But the bottom line is that our expectations often don’t line up with our reality.
Is that a “good” or “bad” thing?
It’s truly neither. On the surface that is.
But underneath, something else brews when we have a lot of expectations. Especially “high” ones. And that is this.
We begin to live our life directed by our expectations. We take left or right turns, so to speak, based on expectations. We don’t do certain things because of expectations. And while we are avoiding doing certain things, we do more of other things, even if we don’t really want to do them. Because of expectations.
You will likely see that a lot of our disappointments in life and our irritation and depression and anger centers around our expectations. Expectations can ruin an otherwise pretty good day, week, month or even year.
Does that mean we should avoid expectations?
We could most certainly try. Of course, we won’t be able to do so completely, as we’re human. But if we try to change our expectations to anticipation, we may find that rather than being disappointed and irritated, we begin to find ourselves delighted and filled with a sense of wonder and excitement.
You may be thinking, but what is the difference between expectation and anticipation?
Though the difference may seem minor. It truly isn’t. When we expect something and it doesn’t appear, we are disappointed. But when we anticipate—that is a much broader, open-ended type of thinking.
Generally, with anticipation, we really have no idea what is coming up in our near or distant future. Like a baby set to spring from the womb, we have no idea what he or she will look or be like, but we anticipate with excited curiosity.
The same goes for getting a present. Unless you were consulted about what you wanted, you have no idea what lies under the wrapping paper, do you? And that gives you a giddy, excited sense of wanting to see what treasure lies beneath.
Going a step further with the present analogy, think of those times when you did ask for something specific but didn’t get it. You were probably miffed because you didn’t get what you asked for and may have discounted what you did get because of your irritation. This is yet another example of how expectation can ruin an otherwise good experience.
My advice? Try as much as possible to stay in a state of anticipation. Because when you do, you begin wondering what fun things lie ahead. By being in such a state of awe and wonder, you elevate your vibration and attract towards you delightful and surprising events, circumstances, and even people.
It is by anticipating that we invite magic and amazement into our lives. And the more you anticipate, the more magical, delightful occurrences come to you. They can’t help but make their way to you, because by anticipating, you have become a magnet.
When you anticipate, you allow. And when you allow, your life becomes much richer, more fun and much more interesting than when you were wallowing in expectations.
