Expect Great Things
My pondering for the week is about expectations. Maybe answering some of these questions will shed some light on recent expectations you've had...and how you dealt with not being 100% correct.
How do we get them?
I think the same place we get everything else! Parents, family, friends, society, marking, religion, our own experiences...
What do our expectations say about us?
I think our expectations reflect our world views. You may be a generally optimistic or pessimistic person, a realist, an idealist, a pragmatist, etc. Can you see how your general feeling about the world and other people frames your expectations?
Do you wish you could see the world differently from time to time?
This is probably as close as you'll get to being someone else for a moment. Frame your world and thus your expectations a little differently...is it a good change for you? I've found that I've had to do a great deal of this at my job lately, and it's a pretty difficult thing for me to do. I'm probably too much of an idealist at times when I should be more pragmatic. Recognizing that however helps me achieve what I can do for the moment, and thus focus on controlling the part of the world I actually operate within as opposed to simply wishing the system were different.
What should our expectations be? Are you happy when your expectation of something was dead on? Are you disappointed? Relieved?
People might think you're crazy if your expectations are always way out of the ball park. I'm sure that's probably one marker used to measure crazy in our world. But we can use our expectations to improve the world if we are careful and measured. This is where realism and pragmatism meets idealism. We should never give up moving toward a better day, but we have to work with what we have today. Expectations should take both into account...where do we want to go and what means do we have to get there right now. I think our expectations work like baby steps.
Blown expectations can push us to feel sorry for ourselves, or really negative about a situation when perhaps things aren't as bad as we make them out to be. I know that I have fallen into that trap many times. Sometimes we make it an opportunity to lower our expectations, which seems like the "realistic" thing to do given the situation...but is it? That really depends on where you started. I think if you become paralyzed to act, then you probably took your "realism" too far.
You can't fix the world, but that doesn't give you the right to wake up each day and not try. People have been doing that for thousands upon thousands of years...making a dent, chipping away, sawing and hammering their little piece. We wouldn't have what we have today without their efforts. So it was not in vain. Your expectations guide your actions. What direction are you walking? How are you making the world better for tomorrow? What are you chipping away at?
How do we get them?
I think the same place we get everything else! Parents, family, friends, society, marking, religion, our own experiences...
What do our expectations say about us?
I think our expectations reflect our world views. You may be a generally optimistic or pessimistic person, a realist, an idealist, a pragmatist, etc. Can you see how your general feeling about the world and other people frames your expectations?
Do you wish you could see the world differently from time to time?
This is probably as close as you'll get to being someone else for a moment. Frame your world and thus your expectations a little differently...is it a good change for you? I've found that I've had to do a great deal of this at my job lately, and it's a pretty difficult thing for me to do. I'm probably too much of an idealist at times when I should be more pragmatic. Recognizing that however helps me achieve what I can do for the moment, and thus focus on controlling the part of the world I actually operate within as opposed to simply wishing the system were different.
What should our expectations be? Are you happy when your expectation of something was dead on? Are you disappointed? Relieved?
People might think you're crazy if your expectations are always way out of the ball park. I'm sure that's probably one marker used to measure crazy in our world. But we can use our expectations to improve the world if we are careful and measured. This is where realism and pragmatism meets idealism. We should never give up moving toward a better day, but we have to work with what we have today. Expectations should take both into account...where do we want to go and what means do we have to get there right now. I think our expectations work like baby steps.
Blown expectations can push us to feel sorry for ourselves, or really negative about a situation when perhaps things aren't as bad as we make them out to be. I know that I have fallen into that trap many times. Sometimes we make it an opportunity to lower our expectations, which seems like the "realistic" thing to do given the situation...but is it? That really depends on where you started. I think if you become paralyzed to act, then you probably took your "realism" too far.
You can't fix the world, but that doesn't give you the right to wake up each day and not try. People have been doing that for thousands upon thousands of years...making a dent, chipping away, sawing and hammering their little piece. We wouldn't have what we have today without their efforts. So it was not in vain. Your expectations guide your actions. What direction are you walking? How are you making the world better for tomorrow? What are you chipping away at?
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