My thought for today is Expectations. An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or that it may be the case in the future. In relationships, we often expect others to "just know" what we need. Shifting from expecting to requesting is a hallmark of healthy communication. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, we are reminded "that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations." If my expectations are high, my serenity level is low. In another context I have heard it said that an expectation is a premeditated resentment. Where boundaries are concerned, we expect people to treat us a certain way and of course we don't tell them what that way is, they should know. But they, being human, are fallible and they fail to meet our expectations and this disappoints us. Because they were not aware of the expectation then they do not realize that they have let us down, so they do not apologize and we become resentful toward them. To increase our level of serenity, we ought to better communicate what our expectations are or not to have any in the first place.
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