Expectations are ruining my peace of mind

I have high expectations! I’m writing this with the hope that what I want to convey will come across as intended. You’re reading this with certain expectations, and fortunately, most of them won’t unfold as anticipated. We’re all human, and we tend to keep expecting things.

When life is peaceful and free from insecurities and uncertainties, our expectations are generally realistic and achievable, although there are exceptions. However, when life is filled with insecurities, messiness, and struggles, we obsessively expect positive outcomes. Over the past year, I left my day job to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. The journey so far has been a roller coaster ride, filled with unanswered questions, insecurities, obstacles, and uncertainties. I’ve had numerous expectations during this journey. For instance, I expect my co-founder to behave and work in a certain way. I expect projects to close smoothly and a steady flow of new projects. I expect my team to respond to messages a certain way. Lastly, I expect all this chaos to be resolved soon. It’s a long list, and I’m well aware that most of these expectations won’t be met, but I’m living with them for now.

On a personal note, I hope my parents become a bit less concerned and more relaxed. I also hope I can stop overcomplicating things in my mind and overthinking. Lately, I’ve been experiencing a new, complex emotion, and the associated expectations have been endless. I believe expectations can be detrimental because they’re often beyond our control and dependent on others. I’ve received advice to lower or eliminate expectations, but I’m not stoic enough to live that way. However, I’m also unsure of how to navigate life with these expectations.

I’m sharing this to pave the way for a potential follow-up, hopefully titled “How I Overcame My Excessive Expectations and Found Peace.” Unmet expectations often lead to other less pleasant emotions and experiences like overthinking and anxiety. It’s a mess inside me right now, and I think it’s high time I start clearing it up before it escalates.

If you’ve made it this far, I believe you know what to expect in future entries. I’ve been trying to write something since I published The Begining a couple of months ago. So, this is a start, and I plan to share my thoughts more randomly going forward.