We tend to have expectations or estimations of the outcome of a risk or the external events that will show up during our days. While expectations are fine, you may notice that you sense disappointment when your expectations are not broad enough to cover outlying possibilities. When something happens to you that is in the range of your estimations, you feel like it is not overwhelming, but when you don’t open enough of a range of possible occurrences in your mind, you may be taken aback because you got hit with something you weren’t prepared for.
Take More Risk In Your Thinking
An important point is that your thoughts are the foundation, so it isn’t helpful to limit thinking. If you find yourself trying to filter out risky or dangerous possibilities, as though they are too much to even think about, you are needlessly bringing disappointment upon yourself. When a scary or frustrating idea comes into your mind as a possible result of something you are doing, process it for a little bit. They say that “what you resist persists”, and so you don’t want to push off thoughts unless you want them to keep pressing themselves back into your conscience.
Expectations Are To Be Used As A Tool
Your expectations aren’t supposed to be there to frighten you whenever you think of the negative possible outcomes. They provide a buffer that guards you from being surprised with something you are not prepared to handle. If you find that your expectations leave you anxious or worried, rethink the point of having them in the first place. You might as well go into the tough predicament expecting nothing, because then you will not be fatigued from days of worry about how it would go. You could call this “winging it”.
You Will Be Reminded Of When To Expand Your Thoughts
When items show up that catch you off guard or place into a new position you had not planned for, take each item as a reminder that you should open up your expectations and thinking for more possibilities. It is better to err on the side of expecting a wider range, from much better to much worse, than to err on the side of expecting small changes. In this way, thinking “big” means having a wider range of planned/prepared for outcomes.
An Alternate Model
Some would say to have no expectations, and to go into each item headfirst and works towards a positive result. While this does sound appropriate, some of us would have a difficult time switching from regularly maintaining expectations to having none at all, or can’t see ourselves doing so. It is in this case that it makes sense to tweak our current routine slightly instead of switching it completely, as it is then more likely that a change will take place. Continuous small steps are what make the large differences.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, small steps make a difference. Dealing head on with our fear of negative outcomes and our negative expectations help us integrate those unproductive belief systems that are running the show behind the scenes. In order to attract, create, and manifest our greatest reality we do want to open our hearts and minds to our full potentials and process any fears that arise.
Thank You
Dr. Jennifer Howard
Dr. Howard: Thank you for your input. You bring up a good point about them being unproductive systems that we have running in place. It is like having a computer program that isn’t optimized being used while a competitor’s program has the low-quality code rewritten to run efficiently.
I like that you included the point about processing fears that arise, because any material about fulfilling potential has to include some way of tackling or responding to the fears that come up as part of our protective nature.