Vicious Circle of Expectations

No matter how well aware we are of the fact that expectations lead to disappointments, we never stop expecting. We may try to convince ourselves but subconsciously we all expect something or the other. 

Every morning, we wake up expecting mom to cook us breakfast, lunch and dinner. We expect dad to work for us and earn us a living. And then the endless expectations from our siblings. Parents expect us to perform well career wise, expect love and respect which we most happily give, yet disappointments are inevitable because so are expectations. 

And did I forget to mention the countless expectations we have from our friends and peers? Well, it's needless to say that we expect our friends to treat us the same way we treat them. But that's like expecting a lion not to attack you because you're sweet to it. 

In this era of Whatsapp and Facebook, we usually expect the other person to drop a message, to call, to send a text, to strike a conversation and more often than not, we're disappointed by the mere fact that they didn't do what we wanted them to. 

Everyday I message someone and at least expect a message on days when I don't, I expect my friends to drop by when I'm not well, I expect my best friend to know when I'm sad or happy, I expect a few wishes on my birthday, I expect to hear from that one person who expects to hear from me too, I expect my dog to wag it's tail when it sees me! What more? I expect "I love you, too" when I say "I love you." And don't we all spend our lives expecting a similar response? Expecting our education to earn us a job, expect our job to earn us a livelihood? 

But it becomes tiring when you're the only one passing the ball and there's no one to catch at the other end. And well, they say it right, "taali ek haath se nahi bajti". If you want your expectations to be met with, learn to reciprocate. 

It's human tendency to expect others and so, I wouldn't ask anyone to not expect anything but incase your expectations aren't met with, learn to deal with disappointments.

Kabhi kabhi izzat bachane ke liye mann marna padhta hai.
You need to save your self-respect by suppressing your wants. 

I expect from him, he expects from her, she expects from him and the vicious circle of expectations goes on. 

Amidst all this, the only person whose expectations you should really match up to is YOU, yourself!

Oh! And I expect you to read this.