How To Cope With High Expectations

Expectations:  What you invision the future will look and feel like, maybe even how others should act.

High expectations can ruin your day.  There, I said it.  By trying to control everything, organizing all your little details in a row, you’ll probably drive yourself bonkers!  I know that when I try to fit too much into my day instead of focusing on what’s most important, I can become hard on myself.

“You still didn’t finish what you said you wanted to complete YESTERDAY!”

High expectations can have negative consequences on your relationships too.  When you expect others to show up or act a certain way, that’s out of your control.  If an expectation is out of your control and is unrealistic (ie. in this case, applies to another person) you will most likely feel frustrated, pressured and stressed due to your expectations being unmet.

When you’re putting pressure on yourself, it’s very important to ditch the success or failure outlook.  It’s very difficult to fail completely!

Pick up a Pom Pom

Why not try on the cheerleader’s role in your life rather than the drill sargent?  You don’t have to prove you’re worthy, loveable or enough.  Learn to cheer yourself onwards instead of basing your opinion of yourself on whether or not you meet your expectations.

Notice Your Footsteps

I remind myself of my failure to meet my expectations more than I take the time to recognize the effort and progress I’ve made.  I’m working on this one!  Being grateful for what you achieve along the way is a great habit to practice.  Take a look back at the steps you’ve taken.  See how far you’ve come!  Notice how much closer you are to your goal if you hadn’t expected anything at all of yourself.

Turn the Light On

Acknowledge what your expectations are so you can expose them.  You may think you have no particular expectation for yourself or for others until you talk or write about it.  Then you can make them more realistic.

Got a vacation coming up?  What are you expecting?

Got a day off every week that you like to JAM PACK?  How will you tweak your expectations to be more realistic and less stress-inducing?

With So Much Love,

Amy