the dictionary meaning of Expectation is “Belief about (or mental picture of) the future” or “Anticipating with confidence of fulfillment”.
We all create expectations for ourselves. It is a basic human trait to project our desires and thoughts onto those we are closest to.
We tend to expect significant people in our lives to behave in a manner envisioned in
our mind.
It is a human tendency to create a mental picture of what will happen given the present scenario and the actions being carried out now.
Very rarely does it happen though that what you expected actually happens. More often than not, expectations don’t come true and this leads to a multitude of problems.
If In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.
Well yes, a valid question may be, that who you are to talk about expectation, and specially keeping yourself above from those human propensities?
Actually, I’m not keeping my self to the sideways, but man, I have right to talk about this, as apart from software development, I have somewhat knowledge of psychology as well.
Getting it? Great, perhaps this will egg on you to listen me more carefully, and to believe certain things too.
Expectations in relationships can be harmful when unspoken ideals are
projected onto the other person. Unspoken assumptions and unrealistic expectations
commonly sabotage relationships.
How many times have your feelings been hurt because you mistakenly assumed
someone else knew what you thought or expected?
Do you ever become annoyed or angry with someone who acted differently than you
expected?
Have you found yourself saying:
“If you really loved me, you would…”
“Why didn’t you…”
“You should…”
It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you are in. Each person’s expectations plays
a large part in determining the health of the relationship.
When someone harbors unclear or unspoken expectations, then they are likely going to
surface at some point.
“Happiness is living without expectations. “
---Peter Cajander
Having expectations is bad and something that should be avoided for 2 reasons.
Firstly, if you had expectations which didn’t come true, it will cause you
a great amount of distress and lead to sorrow, possibly even fractured relationships. Secondly, if you expected something and it actually came true, it
won’t give you much happiness; you will just feel that this was always supposed to happen.
So, what’s the big deal. On the other hand, had you not expected
it, you would be overjoyed when it happens. These 2 reasons are precisely why I avoid (although many a times unsuccessfully) having expectations and would
suggest you do the same.
Assuming one just can’t help keeping expectations, there is one thing that becomes a must. One should always think from the other person’s point of view
as to why something that you expected didn’t happen. For example, your group is going for a movie and you expect them to call you but they don’t. Now the
typical reaction would be to feel bad and get pissed at your friends. However, one must think from their point of view and ask oneself why they didn’t
ask you to join them. It might just be that you have been refusing them last 10 times or so they called and so they assumed you’ll do the same this time
as well. Or maybe someone told them you are very busy with your work and might not make it or simply, there might have been a miscommunication regarding
who was to inform you about the outing and eventually no one ended up doing it. There are numerous possibilities for this and frankly speaking, the best
way to avoid breaking your head over these is to not have expectations in the first place. But in case you do, just make sure you give the other person
a fair chance before starting to judge him/her.
In fact, this is a fiddly job somewhat, but I don’t feel it’s impractical.
Is it?
Friday, July 24, 2009
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