If we are honest with ourselves, when we take a hard look at the things in our day that we think are going wrong often we are getting bent out of shape simply because our personal expectations are not being met. There really isn’t anything going wrong; we are upset because we are not getting what we want the way we want it.
When we face a medical issue, that’s something gone wrong. We are sick or injured, and it impacts our life drastically. If we have to wait a bit before we are served at a business, nothing is really wrong, we just haven’t had our expectation met of immediate service.
If we come home from a trip and find our house flooded from a water leak, we have an issue where something has gone wrong. When your significant other forgot to do the laundry, we tend to get upset because now the shirt we wanted to wear is not clean and our expectation hasn’t been met.
There can even be fairly significant things that occur in our life that we get upset about because our expectation isn’t met. Maybe they are inconveniences, but are not really something that has gone wrong. Let’s say you get pulled over by a police officer and given a ticket for speeding or running a red light, for example. This could be a significant thing in your life, depending on your circumstances. You may want to categorize it as something that went wrong.
But, the reality is that you are upset with the police officer because your expectation of being able to drive the way you wanted to was not acceptable. You might even want to blame the officer for giving you the ticket. But, it was your actions based on your expectations that got you in the situation in the first place. When you were reprimanded, you may get upset.
Let’s remember back to the last post, where we looked at a sample of some good things that happen to us most every day, that we take for granted and forget to recognize and be thankful for. Hopefully, now that we have discussed how your expectations can color your beliefs, you can see that maybe the list of things that are “going wrong” in your life is even smaller that you first thought.
Those who Pursue Great!, learn how to discern the difference between their expectations not being met verses things actually going wrong. When we Pursue Great!, we come to understand that just because our expectations don’t get met sometimes, it doesn’t have to ruin our day.
Focus on the multitude of things that go right in your life every day. Dwell on those things and you will find the stress, the anxiety and the frustration in your life diminish. Dwell on the things that go right and find the happiness in your life increasing!