Life Gets Good When You Finally Let Go of Unrealistic Expectations

Let’s face it, after a while, ‘day in, day out’ life can seem like an endless tunnel forcing us to face one problem after another. Some big, some small –problems at work, problems at home. Our problems, other people’s problems, conflict, red tape, no matter what the issues are, the net is the same –they’re ever-present and they challenge the idealistic expectations we’ve always had for our lives. 

We have a way of setting ourselves up for failure by dreaming up lofty expectations that may actually end up limiting our happiness or success when they’re not met in the way we envisioned. Roadblocks are inevitable.   

You may have grown up watching RomComs about 20-somethings moving to big cities and living thrilling lives. Naturally, when your time came you moved into a city loft channeling Carrie Bradshaw, only to find that in reality, rent was too expensive, parking was impossible and after months you still hadn’t found the love of your life bustling down the city streets. 

Lofty expectations aren’t all bad, but if and when they’re not met, we set ourselves up for certain disappointment.

The problems that ‘get in the way’ of our perfect life expectations can be simple annoyances, while others are truly monumental complications that can change the courses of our lives. Understanding the difference allows us to remove some of the (maybe unrealistic) expectations we have, to focus on which things in life truly matter. 

As entrepreneur, Mahisha Dellinger says, “Your in-box will still be full when you die.” The sooner we can identify which issues in our lives we’ve probably blown out of proportion (i.e. the daily email battle), the sooner we can stop letting those things dictate our happiness and start seeing beyond them. 

Life will be busy, stressful, problematic, you fill in the blank, but if we’re able to take a step back and look at the big picture, we may see that the life-long idealistic expectations we’ve held, could be limiting us from more fulfilling, messy, authentic lives that turn their backs to meaningless problems, unattainable perfection and set sights on true meaning.