Are you living up to your own expectations?

Very few of us have not been brought up with the idea that we have to live up to certain expectations. To be a good girl or boy. To always do our best. To get a good education. These are very common expectation that I’m sure sound familiar to many of you.

Then there are expectations that are perhaps less obvious, but are nonetheless imposed on us. To do better than our parents did. To fulfil a dream our parents have for us, because they couldn’t fulfil theirs. To follow into our fathers footsteps.

And then there are the expectations that are not imposed on us at all, but we somehow have come to think they are. These can take any form or shape in our private and/or professional life, but are nevertheless of our own making. Even when we attribute them to parties or persons outside ourselves.

For a long time I worked in a profession I didn’t enjoy. I worked in it because at some deeper level I thought that would make me live op to someone else’s perceived(!) expectations. I was good at what I did, which kept me there a lot longer than was good for me.

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Ignoring all the signs my mind and body were giving off I stayed with it; slowly climbing the career ladder. Until the signs became too obvious to ignore and both my mind and body finally shut down.

Without consciously realizing it I spent so much time in a job that didn’t make me feel fulfilled or happy, striving to live up to expectations, I had worked myself into a burnout.

It took time to figure out what my own expectations were. It took more time to start living up to my own expectations and stop chasing other people’s approval.

Once I did, I could finally step into my self-confidence and start on a path that was and is entirely my own.

Bruce was right! We are not in this world to live up to other people’s expectations!

WHO’S EXPECTATIONS, REAL OR PERCEIVED, ARE YOU LIVING UP TO?

As always…

Go dare greatly!