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Great expectations
Experience life as it happens
I wonder, have you started reading this article with some sort of expectation?
Us humans are fairly wrapped up in expectations. We set expectations for ourselves about how we look, feel and behave. We have expectations for other people — our family, friends, work colleagues. We have expectations about what our day should be like, and especially what our life should be like. It is so ingrained in our way of being that we often don’t realise that we spend all of our time subconsciously measuring how well each of these expectations are met, and reacting accordingly.
In the middle of summer, we expect to have sunshine every day and when we awake to rain we can be disappointed. When our ever-reliable work colleague doesn’t meet our expectation of being on time we subconsciously tick the ‘did not meet expectations’ box. When we take up running with the expectation of losing weight we get frustrated when it doesn’t happen quickly enough. When we don’t get our problem solved by the telco company it confirms our expectation that they don’t believe in customer service, and further perpetuates our expectation for the next encounter. Even when our expectations are exceeded, like the 3 star restaurant that serves us up a 5 star meal, it impacts our future expectations and sets us up for potential disappointment if it turns…
