Life without expectations

We all expect a lot. From people around us, from places, restaurants, cars, things… We go to fancy places, pay a lot of money and want to have the best dinner in our lives and if it’s even a little bit less of our expectations we aren’t happy. If it’s on the level of those expectations, it’s just ok… We literally fight with our high standards.

For a lot of Russians, the famous Hollywood Boulevard is something from movies, from the other life, wonderful life… And I know a lot of stories when people were walking on the boulevard, and they even didn’t recognize it in the first minute. Because it was something usual, not the golden street, but just a regular one with a bunch of dirty stars. And they were really unhappy with that. Their expectations were broken completely.

Why sometimes is street food so delicious? Why are unexpected places which we accidentally came in so outstanding? Why do we always remember those things so vividly? They beat our expectations a lot because we expected nothing from them. Our expectation level was on the ground, and everything went just up.

People, places, things disappoint us if we expect something from them. It means we don’t accept them as is. We hang our expectations and want to be sure we weren’t wrong. But the truth is no one, and nothing own us anything. They are just people, places and things. The more our expectations, the harder to get satisfaction.

But if you expect nothing and admit everything as is, it’s much easier to enjoy. When I went to New Zealand for the very first time, I expected nothing. Like really nothing. I was going to visit my daughter and seeing the country was my second goal. I saw some pictures, but they were pretty much like the Washington nature to me. And when I came to New Zealand and saw those places I was so amazed! And even now, after visiting a lot of countries and the worldwide trip, New Zealand is still my favorite place.

A friend of mine visited Japan recently. And she was quite disappointed. She went to Japan and was disappointed!!! Can you imagine that! It’s just because of her high stereotypic expectations.

Usually, at least in Russia, “I expect nothing” has some negative meaning. Like, don’t wait for anything good. And it’s a quite a trap. Because having no expectations only means don’t obligate external things with your internal notions.

See things as is, accept people as is, enjoy places as is, that is the real key to the happiness. As soon as you start to live without expectations in a good way, you immediately stop to regret, cease to be disappointed. You will almost forget those words like me now. I was asked recently about my regrets, and, frankly, I was trying to recall what exactly this means. And I genuinely believe you can do it too. Just start to live without expectations!