Expectations

As humans, we live our lives by creating social networks to spend time together and interact with each other. We all have friends and family, work colleagues and neighbors. Each individual living in a society is part of at least a couple of social groups. In other words, all of us have a few groups of people we usually hang out with, no matter the circumstances.

When dealing with people, expectations never forget to come. We have in fact great expectations which usually translate into what we want other people to do for us. Sayings like “I expected more from you” are basic in our daily vocabulary and it is not surprising at all that we often get upset or rather uncomfortable when people don’t meet our expectations.

The thing with expectations is that sometimes they appear long before we know people good enough to understand what they really have to offer. They live and grow with us. Sometimes we don’t really know the people we live in the same house with but still we have expectations. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why expectations are never fulfilled. A good example is what we call “generation gap” when it comes to misunderstandings caused by expectations between parents and their children.

We get disappointed, it’s true, but do we really ask ourselves why? Could it be that all we do is expect, ask and wait, but never give?

Winston Churchill once said that “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”.

We make a living by working and earning money and we always wait but what really matters is what we give.

When we ask something from someone, we should first ask if we can give what we want.

The price we pay to obtain what we want from people around us is the equivalent of what we give. For as funny as it may sound, in live it’s all about trading.

You can never ask for respect unless you show respect. You will never find understanding and comprehension if you can’t show these feelings to others. And you can’t ask a person to be a good and loyal friend unless you prove to be one first.

The key to making life worth living stays in giving more than waiting for others to give.

So don’t give up when things go wrong. Give in for a change.