Meet Your Own Expectations

One of the hardest things we could ever do is meet the expectation we hold of others, ourselves.

That thought occurred to me this morning as I was driving to Starbucks for my morning coffee today. I was noticing that I was (allowing myself to) get annoyed with the driver in front of me. I was (slightly) upset that the person wasn’t really paying attention to the task at hand (according to me) and was in-my-way.

Putting aside the utter silliness of my frustration (after all, I was the one who chose to be on the road, and I know that people often don’t drive the way I think they should), I realized that 1) my expectations were situationally in-appropriate and 2) what was really bothering me was how — in areas other than driving — I was not meeting my own expectations in some key areas of my life.

Wow! That’s as powerful and useful a realization as I allow it to be. Will I dig deep and look at the expectations I have for myself and how I am meeting (or not meeting) them, or will I rationalize away the Truth of my frustration and stay “stuck?”

I am going to step up to the former. I am going to muster all the awareness I have when I’m in the car and actively accept what is happening (or not happening) n front of me. And I am going to work on looking at what I am not doing, that I say is important, and start doing at least some of it, and what I’m doing that doesn’t serve my values and goals and replace those things that do serve my values and goals.

Does any of this ring true for you? Are there areas of external frustration that are really things you need to work on? How can you shift your awareness and actions to honor your true values and authentic goals? Please let me know in the comments below.