Expectations. We all have them. We expect to be amazing at our new job, or we expect our date to go well (I mean, this one could be the one where you meet the love of your life!). You expect to ace your test; you studied, didn’t you? You expect the day to happen according to an image you’ve curated – according to a script you’ve written in your mind that everyone and everything is expected to follow.
Then you notice as you’re walking into your new job that’s supposed to go off without a hitch, a plastic bag from the street has caught onto your heel, or that the wind from the subway made you look like you ran here, or – my favourite – you smile only to realize your lunch has come back with a vengeance … on your teeth. Right there. Front and centre.
Things go wrong. Things go right. Things sometimes just go.
It’s funny. Most of us seem to know that time doesn’t really exist in the way we think of it. I mean, sure, you have deadlines and meetings at certain times, and you should probably start studying for that test next week, but never mind all that. I’m talking about timelines and being in a race against time.
We’re expected to know what we want to do with our lives by 17. We expect ourselves to have an amazing career by 22. We expect ourselves to be moved out in a fabulous apartment as soon as we graduate. And let me tell you, if you live in a city, that’s damn near impossible. We expect to meet the love of our lives and start our happily ever after by 25. We set deadlines for ourselves. We write how our lives are going to play out and get disappointed and feel like failures when life doesn’t happen that way. Crushed when we fail a class and devastated when we don’t get a call back from a job we wanted.
But hey, didn’t you see that ad for the same job somewhere else with better pay? Did you try switching the class? You hated that one anyway. Clear your head and let it all go.
We are in a time where we’re told we can do anything – and we totally can. But sometimes you just need to breathe and reevaluate what it is you really want. You’ve probably heard of manifestation, right? How the universe will basically give you what you want if you put that thought and those actions out there? Yes. The universe may give you exactly what you want. However, I personally believe that the universe may have bigger plans. Plans that may differ from yours. Maybe you were put on a waitlist at your dream school but after looking more into the school that gave you early acceptance, you realize their program is so much better.
That guy you’ve been obsessing over? He was just in the way of someone else who doesn’t play games.
Okay, fine. You didn’t get the job. But why not just work for yourself if you can. At least then you’re guaranteed a job you love.
We expect things. We expect our life to go by and be happy with every moment of it. But bad things happen. Sometimes life takes us on a detour. You’ve already gone through countless detours in your life and you’re still here.
Expectations lay out what we want. It’s what we manifest. But when we become obsessive and try to control the uncontrollable, that’s when the universe puts us in our place. Take a breath and let go. That’s usually when the best things happen.