Expectations are skilled at sneaking up on you. We swim in a sea of them but we don’t always recognize their power over our actions. Expectations do have a say in what we do or don’t depending on whether we think we’re living up to whatever expectation-of-the day we encounter. We’re dealing with your standard expectation types. Nothing fancy here. Of course they show up differently depending on your identity. We expect different things of different types of people. Our relationship to things and people also shape our expectations of them. And we think we know what’s expected of “people like us.” So we all dance around in this choreography of achievement. And, eventually, it tires us out. Or it possesses us in unhealthy ways. Which is why we should inspect our expectations carefully. Where did they come from? How did they get here? Do they have any ID? This interrogation often suggests it is us placing the burden over our own heads. One way is by making commitments without considering the details. In this way, it’s like having unclear expectations. Another way is by blindly assuming something is worthy of our attention because it has earned that of others. Yet another is that we make expectations up. We don’t even know why we believe some things are important. We just believe them. So, yeah, I think expectations sneak up on you. And I think they’re powerful when we let them be. Which could be a good thing if we also chose our expectations carefully. If we recognized the signs of expectations that lead to shallow waters and steered toward those with depth and a sense of something a bit more grand. That would be alright. At least, I expect it would.
